(Repeats story published late on Thursday)
By Martin Dokoupil
PRAGUE, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The upper house of the Czech
parliament backed a plan on Thursday to build a U.S. missile
defence shield base in the central European country, but it
faces tough scrutiny in the lower chamber.
Washington plans to build a radar in the Czech Republic and
place 10 interceptor rockets in Poland as a part of its plan to
protect the United States and its allies from missiles that
could be fired from countries such as Iran.
The plan must still be cleared by the Czech lower house,
where the government lacks a majority and the opposition is
against the agreement.
"If I did not believe in the chances (that it gets approved
in the lower house), I would not fight for it so much," Czech
Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg told Reuters after
the vote.
A final vote in the lower house is not expected at least
until after the new U.S. administration takes power in January.
"At this point it is unlikely (to get approved in the lower
house) but it would be more likely if ... Obama made some
decision saying: we are going ahead with this ... Then a lot of
these (opposition) left of centre deputies could be swayed,"
said Jiri Pehe, a political analyst at New York University in
Prague.
The project has angered Russia, the former master of central
Europe in Soviet times, which sees is as a threat to its
security and warned it would deploy its own missiles in the
western enclave of Kaliningrad.
The spat, along with the Russian intervention in Georgia in
August, has become one of the main factors behind a chill in
U.S.-Russia relations, which have cooled to post-Cold War lows.
U.S. president-elect Barack Obama has said he backed the
missile defence project in general but it should be "pragmatic
and cost-effective" and should not divert resources from other
priorities until it is proven that it works.
His likely Secretary of State, Senator Hillary Clinton, has
criticised what she called was the Bush administration's focus
on "expensive and unproven missile defence technology".
Czech and Polish leaders have said they expected the new
administration to go ahead with the plan.
The Polish parliament is expected to vote on the plan next
year.
TRADE-OFF FOR LISBON
The missile defence project has also divided the Czech
political scene and alienated the majority of the central
European nation of 10.4 million, resentful of any foreign
military presence -- even the less than 200-strong, allied U.S.
contingent that would run the radar -- since a Soviet-led 1968
invasion of Czechoslovakia.
The centre-right Czech government, irritated by Russia's
increasingly tough foreign policy, sees the missile defence
project as a key security guarantee on the top of its membership
in the NATO alliance.
The leftist opposition Social Democrats are against the
shield, saying it is unnecessary and should not be built on the
basis of a bilateral agreement with the United States rather
than a multi-national arrangement. NATO has backed the project
at a summit in Bucharest earlier this year.
Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has said some in his
right-wing Civic Democrat Party may hold up an unrelated vote on
the EU's Lisbon Treaty, backed by the opposition, unless the
opposition allows the radar treaties go through.
The government only has 96 votes in the 200-seat lower
house, and needs the votes of independents and probably also
some Social Democrats for the radar treaties to be approved.
Social Democrat chief Jiri Paroubek -- who had earlier said
he had no problem with the missile defence deal but changed his
position in light of strong public opposition -- has so far
refused any arrangement allowing the radar treaties to go
through.
(Additional reporting by Jason Hovet; Writing by Jan Lopatka
and Jana Mlcochova; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
