U.S. President George W. Bush called for cooperation from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin here Tuesday on the deployment of a planned U.S. missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Bush made the speech at a press conference after talks with the Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek in Prague Castle.

"The Cold War has ended and Russia is not the United States' enemy," said the U.S. president.

Bush said he would explain to Putin that there is no reason for Russian concerns over the U.S. project, which Moscow sees as a threat to its security.

The U.S. anti-missile base in Central Europe is "purely a defense system" and cannot threaten Russia, he said, adding it was designed to protect the free world from extremist and "rogue" regimes.

Bush will meet Putin later this week at the G8 summit in Germany.

According to Bush, the U.S. system is not a matter of bilateral negotiations with the Czechs and Poles. It will be coordinated within NATO as well, he said.

Klaus praised Bush's readiness to explain to Russia the planned U.S. anti-missile system in the Czech Republic and in Poland.

Support of the Czech public for the U.S. plan is most important, Klaus said.

"President Bush has clearly realized this as well," Klaus told journalists after his talks with Bush.

He said Czech political leaders are interested in firm trans- Atlantic relations.

"I assured Mr President that I as well as the government are interested in Europe not perceiving the United States as a competition. We are not really participating in creating a united Europe as a kind of counterbalance to America. This is by no means our goal," Klaus said.

Topolanek, who attended the press conference together with Bush and Klaus, said he considers that the U.S. base in Central Europe expresses not only shared values and joint defense, but also a chance in other fields.

Bush arrived here for a working visit late Monday. His two-day trip was focusing on the planned installation of the U.S. radar base on Czech territory.

The United States made a formal request in January to place a radar base in the Brdy military area southwest of Prague and 10 interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland as part of a planned global missile defense shield. Russia has voiced strong opposition to the deployment.

More than 60 percent of the Czechs opposed the U.S. radar base. The plan is also opposed by municipalities in the surroundings of the military district Brdy where the base is to be built.

Source: Xinhua