Poland and the Czech Republic are among the nations under consideration.

A recommendation on a European site is expected to be made this summer to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Pentagon officials were quoted as saying.

The Pentagon has Congress for 56 million U.S. dollars to begin initial work on the long-envisioned antimissile site, a request that has run into some opposition in Congress, the report said.

The final cost, including the interceptors themselves, is estimated at 1.6 billion dollars.

The establishment of an antimissile base in Eastern Europe would have enormous political implications. The deployment of interceptors in Poland, for example, would create the first permanent American military presence on that nation's soil and further solidify the close ties between the defense establishments of the two countries.

The plan, which has received relatively little attention in the United States, is a subject of lively discussion in Poland and has prompted Russian charges that Washington's hidden agenda is to expand the Americans presence in the former Warsaw Pact nation, according to the report.

The proposed antimissile site is the latest development in the U.S. missile defense program, which began with former President Ronald Reagan's expansive vision of a space-based anti-missile shield.

President George W. Bush made the program a top priority after taking office in 2001 and cleared the way for antimissile deployments by withdrawing from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.

Nine interceptors have already been installed at Fort Greely, Alaska, and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as part of a broader, multilayered system planned by the Pentagon.

"Go ahead and build that shield. You have to think, though, what will fall on your heads afterwards. I do not foresee a nuclear conflict between Russia and the West. We do not have such plans," Russian general Yuri Baluyevsky is quoted by The EU Observer.

About the intension of the Bush Administration to establish so-called 'Star Wars' bases reported Tuesday The EU Observer. The new scheme is the latest chapter in the 20 year-old U.S. missile defense program, referred to as "Star Wars", and is intended to thwart a potential attack from the Middle-East.

A recommendation on a European site is expected to be made this summer to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Pentagon officials say. The Pentagon has asked Congress for $56 million to begin work on the long-envisioned anti-missile site, a request that has some opposition in Congress. The final cost is estimated at $1.6 billion, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Poland and the Czech Republic have been singled out as possible sites for the missile interceptors, with strongly pro-U.S. Poland already expressing a will to sign a contract with Washington, it would be the first permanent U.S. military presence on that nation's soil. The Czech Republic has avoided public discussion of the US project, out of fears it could become an issue in parliamentary elections next month.

A Russian general, Yuri Baluyevsky, warned that the anti-missile site could draw Poland into the U.S.' far-flung military adventures. "However, it is understandable that countries that are part of such a shield increase their risk", he added.

Russian experts from "Nezavisimoe voennoe obozrenie" newspaper (Independent military survey) are also concerned about the possible deployment of American missiles in Europe. They believe that anti-missile site in Europe is planned not against any possible threats from the Middle East. "Star Wars" bases would give the U.S. possibility to control the entire territory of Russia, concludes the author.

Nine interceptors already have been installed at Fort Greely, Alaska, and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County as part of a multilayered system planned by the Pentagon. The Fort Greely and Vandenberg sites are primarily oriented against potential threats from North Korea.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on May 4 in Vilnius that Russia was using energy as a weapon against former republics of the Soviet Union and meddling in their politics. Days later Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to the United States as a wolf with a limited point of view.

"These are things we've been saying and talking about for some time," Rice said. "They perhaps got put together in the vice president's speech, but these have been issues with the Russians and we've been vocal about them," she said.

"There are some protections for individual freedoms, but we have to worry that the kind of institutionalization of democracy that is so important - with a free press, with a judiciary that's independent, with a legislature that is a real legislature. That is what has not taken place and indeed where there have been some reversals in Russia. And so we have to speak the truth as we know it," Rice said.

"It's also important for Russia not to intimidate its neighbors. The small states around Russia that used to be part of the Soviet Union are now independent and they have to be respected as such," she said.

"Finally, if Russia is to be a reliable energy supplier in the energy markets, which is extremely important these days, Russia has to behave in a way that its customers are to believe that these really will be matters of commerce and not matters of politics. So it was important to speak up on it," Rice said.

"Yet as the President (George W. Bush) said, nobody's going to give up on Russia. We know that it's not the Soviet Union."

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov handed over Putin's message to Saudi King Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud on May 21, the Kremlin press service representative told Interfax.

"The message lauded successful bilateral relations in trade, economy, investment, energy and other spheres, and stressed the mutual wish to promote peace and international security and stability," the press service representative said. He added that increased interaction, including the joint response to international terrorism, will strengthen the Russian-Saudi partnership.

The Russian minister is in Saudi Arabia for the first time as part of a Persian Gulf tour that will take him to Kuwait on Monday. It is expected that Lavrov will discuss the situation in Iraq and the Iranian nuclear problem with the Kuwaiti leadership.