WARSAW — Poland and the Czech Republic said Monday that they probably would agree to having parts of a U.S. global missile defense system on their soil, and Moscow warned that the decision could make them targets of a Russian missile strike.
Poland would allow a battery of up to 10 ground-based ballistic rockets and the neighboring Czech Republic would be the site for an advanced radar system to track missiles.
Both countries are former members of the Soviet bloc that are now part of NATO.
"We have agreed that our response to the offer will most likely be positive," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said at a joint news conference with his Polish counterpart, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
The United States' multibillion-dollar defense system is designed to counter missiles that might someday be fired by what Washington calls rogue states -- Iran and North Korea, for instance.
