Blair challenges Putin as missiles storm escalates

The Prime Minister spoke out hours after the Russian president threatened to aim missiles at Europe if the U.S. presses ahead with plans to build a missile shield near Russia's borders.

Mr Blair insisted that the shield posed no threat to Russia but was intended to provide protection against 'rogue states' such as Iran or North Korea.

His official spokesman said the system was in the wrong location and had too few interceptor missiles to defend against an attack from Russia.

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The spokesman added there were concerns across Europe at the threats made by Mr Putin in interviews released on Sunday.

"We want to have a constructive dialogue with Russia," he said. "We want to be able to talk about issues such as Kosovo, Iran and other global issues in a constructive way.

"Equally Europe as a whole does have concerns and will not be shy in expressing those concerns.

"Whether there is a constructive relationship is as much up to Russia as it is to us."

NATO used diplomatic language yesterday, but it also condemned Mr Putin's threat.

Spokesman James Appathurai said: "As far as I am aware, the only country speculating about targeting Europe with missiles is the Russian Federation.

"These kind of comments are unhelpful and unwelcome."

The missile row, with its echoes of the Cold War, is expected to overshadow the G8 summit, which opens in Germany tomorrow, when George Bush will meet Mr Putin.

Significantly, the U.S. president has chosen to 'sandwich' that meeting between visits to the Czech Republic and Poland, the two former Soviet satellite countries likely to host the missile silos and radar station for the shield in Europe.

Simon Serfaty, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said this delivered a 'distinctive' message.

"The message is that we're going to do what we're going to do, and your concerns about the deployment of some marginal capabilities designed for defence purposes in Central Europe are not going to impress me."

Despite their governments backing the controversial plans, the majority of Czechs and Poles are against the missile and radar sitings.

Mr Bush was expected to face demonstrations when he flew into Prague last night. Thousands of protesters were due at a rally near the medieval Prague Castle.

Opinion polls say that more than 60 per cent of Czechs oppose the idea of hosting the radar system, which would be built inside the sprawling Brdy military zone south-west of Prague.

Surveys in Poland suggest only one in four wants the missiles.

Opposition is growing despite repeated U.S. assurances that the rockets would not carry warheads and would be purely defensive.

Mr Bush is due to meet Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek, who has shrugged off domestic opposition and contends that the missile shield would enhance security in the face of a possible threat from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East.

Russia has the world's largest nuclear arsenal with around 16,000 warheads, of which almost 9,000 are mothballed and 'inactive.' It had 35,000 when the Cold War ended.

The 7,000 operational warheads are spread between land-launched rockets, strategic bombers and missile submarines, or stored as frontline spares.

New missiles, designed to defeat U.S. defences, are being developed and test-flown.

In his interviews, a clearly irritated Mr Putin said that the planned system would be "an integral part of the U.S. nuclear arsenal" in Europe, adding: "It simply changes the entire configuration of international security."

He said he hoped the U.S. would change its mind over the missile plan, warning that Moscow was preparing a tit-for-tat response.

"If this doesn't happen, then we disclaim responsibility for our retaliatory steps, because it is not we who are the initiators of the new arms race, which is undoubtedly brewing in Europe," he said.

The Russian president added that while Washington talked of the missile shield being to defend against attacks from countries such as Iran and North Korea, neither had missiles capable of reaching into Europe. "Doesn't it seem funny to you?" he asked.

• Mr Putin added to tensions with Britain yesterday when he expressed exasperation with BP's Russian joint venture.

He said it was underproducing at the giant Kovykta gas field in Siberia.

Mr Putin said it was unclear whether the licence held by BP to operate the field, the company's biggest gas reserve, would be revoked in a ruling by Russia's energy industry regulator, which is expected in two weeks.

The regulator has been looking at whether BP is keeping to the original terms of the licence, but energy analysts believe it is a move by Moscow to take control of the gas field.

Mr Putin said: "I would like to point out that the field has reserves of about 3 trillion cubic metres.

"It is equal to almost all of Canada's reserves. But if the participants of this consortium are doing nothing to meet the licence terms, then how long must we put up with this?"

BP's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, is the main shareholder in the company developing the field, which has been unable to reach an agreement with Russia's natural gas monopoly Gazprom over exports from Kovykta to China.

That means its current production is far lower than the nine billion cubic metres per year stipulated in the original agreement.