U.S. Missile Defense Agency is ready to allow Russian experts to inspect a missile defense site likely to be placed in Poland to convince Moscow it poses no threat to its interests, the Reuters news agency reported April 18.

“We would be prepared to show the site to the Russians so that they could check for themselves that it has no offensive character,” Lieutenant-General Henry Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said late on Tuesday.

Poland is Obering’s latest stop in a tour aimed at convincing the European public, much of which is skeptical, of the merits of the system.

Washington wants to deploy 10 interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic by 2012 as part of a multi-billion dollar system designed to shoot down missiles that could be fired at the United States and its allies by Iran.

Russia sees the plan as encroachment on its former sphere of influence and has warned the West it could revive a Cold War arms race.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last month that Moscow feared the silos for the interceptors could in time be converted to take offensive weapons.

U.S. and European diplomats believe Russia will grudgingly accept the plan as part of a broader deal with the West on a number of security issues such as Iran and nuclear proliferation.

Washington hopes to begin detailed negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic within the next 30 days, diplomats say.

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