AFP: Czech PM will push for radar

According to the AFP news agency, Prime Minister Topolánek hopes to persuade US President Barack Obama not to abandon plans for a controversial missile shield project in central Europe initiated by his predecessor president Bush. The project involves siting missile defence components in the Czech Republic and neighbouring Poland. AFP says that Washington’s new policy of dialogue with Moscow has increased anxiety among the former communist bloc states who were hoping that the project would tie them more firmly to the West.