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.

Czech opposition Social Democrat chairman Jiri Paroubek said his meeting with Bush on Tuesday afternoon has changed nothing in his party's objection to the planned deployment of the U.S. radar base on Czech territory.

"We differ on this particular issue, but this does not downgrade friendship with the American people," Paroubek said at a press conference.

Nevertheless, his party is still interested in close alliance with the United States, he said.

He said his party insisted on the issue being decided on by people in a referendum.

Apart from the base issue, Bush said he will work for the abolition of the visa duty for Czech citizens traveling to the United States.

However, the abolition is naturally connected with certain security requirements, said Bush.

Topolanek said he trusts Bush's effort to strive for visa-free relations with the Czech Republic.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said a solution to the visa issue would strengthen Czech-U.S. relations.

Unlike Czechs, U.S. citizens do not need tourist visas when traveling to the Czech Republic.

The visa regime is considered one of the few problems in the relations between the EU newcomers and the United States which has visa-free relations with 27 countries, including all old EU members except for Greece, as well as Slovenia among the newcomers.

Bush had assured Klaus at the summit in Latvia last year that he would strive for the abolition of visas for Czechs and other EU newcomers.

The operation of Czech troops in foreign missions, primarily in Afghanistan and Iraq, was also one of the topics that the countries' leaders talked about.

Around 500 Czechs protested against the planned construction of a U.S. radar base in Rozmital pod Tremsinem, near Brdy military training area, the planned radar site.

The leader of the KSCM Vojtech Filip, whose party organized the rally, said it protested against Bush's visit.

At an international conference of democracy and security, Bush criticized that Russian reforms "that once promised to empower citizens have been derailed" under President Vladimir Putin.

The reforms in Russia have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development, Bush added.

Bush arrived here for a working visit late Monday. His 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