General Nikolai Solovtsov, head of strategic missile forces, said if Washington pushes forward plans to build installations in Central Europe the Kremlin would act to ensure Russia's vast nuclear arsenal remained effective.

"I can't exclude that ... the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic and other such objects could be chosen as designated targets for some of our inter-continental ballistic missiles," he said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

Such a move would guarantee Russian missile forces can "fulfil the task of strategic deterrence," he said.

Washington insists its shield -- endorsed by all 26 NATO member states earlier this year -- is to fend off potential missile attacks by what it calls "rogue states" such as Iran.

Moscow says the system is part of an effort to encircle Russia and undermine its nuclear deterrent.

The issue has been brought into sharper focus against the backdrop of events in Georgia, whose five-day armed conflict with Moscow has plunged US-Russia relations to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War.

In icy diplomatic exchanges, Washington has accused Russia of seeking to redraw the map by brutally violating another country's territorial integrity.

Russia in turn has accused Washington of orchestrating the conflict by arming Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and threatening the strategic balance in the region by deploying US warships to the Black Sea.

Two weeks after the start of the war, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travelled to Poland to sign a deal on the siting a battery of 10 interceptor missiles there, a move widely seen as a rebuff to Moscow over its incursion into Georgia.

On Wednesday the Czech government approved an agreement on deploying US forces at a powerful radar base planned as part of the shield.

The agreement was the last hurdle before the missile shield plans, which are strongly opposed by Russia, go before the Czech parliament.

While the 10 missile interceptors planned for Poland could not themselves undermine Russia's arsenal, Moscow is troubled by a lack of transparency in the project, General Solovtsov said.

Russian has failed to convince Washington to build a joint shield with Russia and its proposals to place Russian observers at the sites in Central Europe were rebuffed.

Solovtsov said that by the end of the year Russia planned to carry out four strategic missile tests, including a test of the new RS-24, capable of carrying a clutch of independently targetable warheads.

In late August Russia test-fired an intercontinental missile designed to avoid detection by missile-defence systems.

earlier related report
Prague approves US missile base forces accord
The Czech government approved Wednesday an agreement on deploying US forces at an anti-missile radar, with Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek dismissing a Russian general's threat to target the site as "nonsense."

Topolanek told a press conference that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) would go to the Czech parliament in December at the earliest, in other words "after the US presidential elections."

The agreement was the last hurdle before the missile shield plans, which are strongly opposed by Russia, go before parliament, but public opinion is hostile and it is not yet certain to get majority backing.

Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova announced that the government had succeeded in having many of its demands included in formal agreement.

Prague and Washington in July signed a preliminary deal to base a powerful radar system in the Czech republic to support a battery of 10 anti-missile missiles in neighbouring Poland.

Shortly before Parkanova's announcement, a senior Russian general said Russia could point its own missiles at the Polish and Czech sites, which the United States says are designed to counter attacks by "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.

Moscow "is obliged to take corresponding measures that prevent under any circumstances the devaluing of Russia's nuclear deterrent," Interfax agency quoted General Nikolai Solovtsov, head of Russia's strategic missile forces, as saying.

While the interceptors planned for Poland could not themselves undermine Russia's arsenal, Solovtsov said Moscow was troubled by a lack of transparency in the project.

Moscow sees the plans for new US missile defence facilities in central Europe as part of an effort to encircle Russia. The US denies this, and Topolanek rejected the latest Russian threats as "nonsense."

"I do not intend to contribute to cold war provocation or rhetoric," he said. "The radar is purely defensive, designed to deal with long-range missiles from rogue states," he said.

The radar "cannot either technically or militarily be aimed at a state such as the Russian Federation, which has an arsenal of thousands of these missiles.

"This is nonsense on the technical, security and military aspects.

"The fact that the Russian administration, or rather Russian generals, use such rhetoric, with some even talking of a new cold war, gives me no pleasure, but it does not change our position in any way.

Europe needed a "defensive umbrella," Topolanek added.

SOFA, which could be officially signed in September at NATO defence ministers' talks in London, restricts US troops largely to the interior of the radar base, Parkanova said.

The area and buildings, on a former Soviet military base at Brdy, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) southwest of Prague, will remain Czech property, and Czech forces will be responsible for its protection and external security.

"The US military will be authorised to operate outside the radar station to maintain the discipline of their personnel, but only with the agreement and supervision of the Czech side," Parkanova said.

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