President Bush at Prague Castle: Washington and Moscow should cooperate on missile defence shield

On Tuesday morning, the US President met with his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. Speaking to journalists after the meeting at Prague Castle, Mr Bush said a US plan to build part of its missile defence shield in the Czech Republic and Poland is a "purely defensive" measure. He stressed that the defence shield is not aimed at Russia and that his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin would be not to fear the missile defence system but rather cooperate with Washington and send generals and scientists over to see how such a system would work.

Mr Bush was reacting to warnings from President Vladimir Putin on Sunday that if the American nuclear capability widens across European territory then Russia would give itself new targets in Europe. Mr. Putin acknowledged that Russia's response risked starting an arms race, but he said Moscow would not be responsible for the consequences because Washington had started it.