Washington/Prague - US President Barack Obama may scrap plans by his predecessor, George W Bush, to install a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing informed sources. The White House is to argue the Bush-era project can be halted because Iran has been slower in building long-range missiles than previously estimated, the report said.
The report however indicated that the findings of a 60-day White House review of the project are to be concluded next week at the earliest.
Poland and the Czech Republic were due to jointly host the missile project. The Bush administration intended to build a tracking radar in a military base south of Prague and build a launch site with 10 interceptor missiles in Poland.
In Prague on Thursday, a spokesman confirmed that Prime Minister Jan Fischer and President Obama spoke by telephone overnight over the issue.
"Barack Obama informed Premier Fischer about the American administration's new position towards the anti-missile shield in Central Europe," spokesman Roman Prorok said.
Meanwhile, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Ellen Tauscher, was travelling between Prague and Warsaw Thursday for meetings with government officials.
Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Stanislaw Komorowski confirmed a Thursday morning meeting over the defence system in Warsaw between Polish and US delegations including US ambassador Victor Ashe. The meeting ended without the partipants providing any comment.
Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said he had expected that the Obama administration would drop the missile defence plan.
"The Americans always cared about their (own) interests. They used everybody else," Walesa said. "It wasn't that the shield was that important, but it's about the way. The way of treating us."
The Polish media appeared to complain that the Czechs had been informed first of any possible cancellation. "The Czechs already know," said a headline on news website tvn24. "The American delegation is barely on its way to Poland."
Moscow reacted cautiously to the report, with a spokesman for the Russia Foreign Ministry saying "it would be good news for Russia."
The spokesman went on to say that if the US was indeed reconsidering the facilities, Russia's unease with the project must have been taken into consideration, according to the Interfax news agency.
While the Bush administration insisted that the bases would protect the West against potential long-range missiles from so-called "rogue" states such as Iran, Moscow saw the project as a threat to its own security.
