The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Warsaw

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans Wednesday to sign a deal to build a U.S. missile defense base on Polish soil, an agreement that has already prompted an infuriated Russia to threaten its former Soviet satellite.

The deal to install 10 U.S. interceptor missiles just 115 miles from Russia's westernmost frontier also has strained relations between Moscow and the West, ties that already troubled by Russia's invasion of its former Soviet neighbor, U.S. ally Georgia, earlier this month.

Rice flew to Poland Tuesday after meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, where the military allies agreed to suspend formal contacts with Russia as punishment for the Georgia conflict, but resisted U.S. pressure for more severe penalties.

The U.S. says the missile defense system is aimed at protecting the U.S. and Europe from future attacks from states like Iran. Moscow insists that it is a threat to Russia.

After Warsaw and Washington announced the agreement on the deal last week, top Russian Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn warned that Poland is risking attack, and possibly a nuclear one, by deploying the American missile defense system, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Poles have been shaken by the threats, but NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop dismissed them Tuesday as "pathetic rhetoric."

"It is unhelpful and it leads nowhere," he told reporters at the NATO meeting.