US 'assurances' over defence system

Fylingdales: Could be upgraded for new system

The UK government has welcomed what it says is an assurance from the USA that it will not introduce its planned missile defence system until it takes "a number of factors" into account.

Foreign Office minister Keith Vaz told the House of Commons that he believed that a solution to growing tension over the proposed system, dubbed "son of Star Wars", lay in negotiations between the US and Russia.

The minister was speaking as speculation continued that the UK would be prepared to allow the US to site a new missile early warning centre on its soil.

The US says that it needs the system to protect it from a missile threat from "rogue nations" but opponents say that the it could spark a new arms race.

"The US has not yet decided to proceed with a national missile defence system, nor will it before later in the summer," Mr Vaz told MPs.

"We have welcomed repeated US assurances that they will take a number of factors into account before they reach a decision, including its possible impact on strategic stability and international arms control.

"We continue to urge both the US administration and the Russian government to seek an agreed way forward on this issue.

"We have made clear to both sides that we want to see the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) preserved and early progress on reducing nuclear arms in each country."

New warning system

The US military has been developing the anti-ballistic missile system for a number of years but its proposed deployment has been put back by technical errors and a number of highly public failures during test firings.

The system, which has been initially designed to protect the north-western parts of the United States from a missile attack from North Korea, knocks out in-coming intercontinental missiles with another "interceptor" missile fired from batteries in Alaska and North Dakota.

The British government says that it has yet to have had a request from Washington, but reports suggest that the US military wants to upgrade its radar centre at Fylingdales, North Yorkshire, to become a "forward sentry" that will extend the "missile shield" to protect it from attacks originating in the Middle East.

Ministers are said to be "sympathetic" to the need to upgrade the base but fear that it would leave the UK vulnerable to attacks unless the US could provide some form of security guarantee.

However, the proposed system is raising fears of a new arms race which could threaten nuclear stability.

Both Russia and China oppose the system which they say could leave the US with an enhanced "first strike" capability, destroying the delicate global balance of nuclear weapons. They say the system would also break the 1972 treaty.