Pat Dollard | Young Americans

President Bush meets with Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk in the Oval Office at the White House today.

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush said on Monday he had agreed the United States would help modernize the Polish military as part of a U.S. plan to base components of a global missile defense shield in Poland.

Bush’s announcement, after White House talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, appeared to mark a major step toward meeting Poland’s demand that Washington boost military aid in exchange for allowing the basing of 10 missile interceptors in Poland.

The two leaders hailed their meeting as a success but made clear that no final deal had been reached on the anti-missile system, something U.S. and Polish officials have said could still take months more.

“The United States recognizes the need for Polish forces to be modernized,” Bush told reporters. He said “before my watch is over” — he leaves office in January 2009 — U.S. experts would have assessed those needs.

Bush again played down Moscow’s concerns about the missile shield, saying, “This system is not aimed at Russia. I will continue to work with President (Vladimir) Putin and give him those assurances as well.”

The Bush administration wants to put the interceptor base in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of a global system it says is meant to protect the United States and allies from long-range ballistic missiles from “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea.

Russia has insisted, however, that the shield could pose a threat to its security, and Putin has warned that Moscow will target its missiles at the system if it is deployed in Eastern Europe, Russia’s former sphere of influence.

The United States and the Czech Republic are close to finalizing an agreement, but the Polish government has taken a tougher stance in negotiations and many details remain to hammered out.

Tusk, sitting with Bush in the Oval Office after Monday’s talks, said Poland was ready to cooperate on missile defense as part of an overall security effort that would include upgrading Polish forces.

“All these issues come in the same package,” he told reporters. He deemed it a “breakthrough” that Bush and the U.S. government now “understand quite clearly our expectations.”

(Reuters)