(Repeats story published late on Tuesday)
* Czech government pulls US shield treaties from parliament
* May delay ratification for months
* No immediate comment from the Kremlin
By Jan Lopatka
PRAGUE, March 17 (Reuters) - The Czech government
temporarily withdrew treaties on hosting a U.S. defence radar
from a parliament ratification process on Tuesday in the face of
an opposition threat to vote them down.
The decision highlighted the centre-right government's
weakness in parliament and may delay the ratification for months
or even put it on ice for an unpredictable period.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush's administration agreed
with the Czech Republic to put a radar base southwest of Prague
as part of a plan to expand its missile defence shield against
any attack from countries such as Iran.
The plan also calls for a battery of interceptor missiles to
be based in Poland, the Czechs' bigger neighbour in central
Europe.
"This does not mean we are giving up on the ratification
process," Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said in a live
television address.
"We can return this material to the lower house at any
time," he said.
The opposition on Tuesday took advantage of the absence of
several government deputies to put the issue on the agenda in
the lower house, threatening to force a vote which could torpedo
the agreements.
Topolanek added that the government would return to the
issue after talks with the U.S. administration and the NATO
summit in Strasbourg and Kehl.
The summit takes place on April 3-4 and U.S. President
Barack Obama then travels to Prague to meet European Union
leaders on April 5. The Czechs hold the rotating EU presidency
until the end of June.
Obama has been cooler than Bush on missile defence, saying
the need for the system would be reduced if Iran gave up its
nuclear programme.
However, he has denied he had offered Russia a deal under
which the United States would slow deployment of the system in
return for Moscow's help with Iran.
Russia sees the missile defence project as a military
expansion of the United States closer to its borders, into
former Warsaw pact countries that used to be controlled by the
Soviet Union.
There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.
GOVERNMENT'S POSITION WEAKENS
The centre-right Czech government has been supporting the
plan, which would give the NATO and European Union member closer
ties with the United States, but a lack of majority in the lower
house has repeatedly delayed ratification.
The government has 96 votes in the 200-seat house. The
opposition has 97 and the balance of power often lies with a
handful of independents who make up the rest.
The government will go through a key test next week, when
the opposition plans to hold a no-confidence vote
[].
Several leftist Social Democrats had considered supporting
ratification of the treaties but the party ordered strict
discipline in voting against the radar, which is unpopular among
about 70 percent of people in the country of 10.5 million.
The treaties have been approved by the upper house, the
Senate, where the government has a solid majority.
But the Senate has in return been holding back approval of
the EU's Lisbon treaty, meant to reform the bloc's
decision-making, in an attempt to put more pressure on the lower
house to push the missile defence shield through.
(Editing by Charles Dick)
