Debate urged over missile base

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Defence Secretary Des Browne revealed he had approved a US request to use the top-secret Menwith Hill facility through a written statement as MPs left Westminster for the summer.

Campaigners claim the role of the North Yorkshire base will mark the UK out as a target, despite ministers' insistence the plan would "build future protection for our citizens".

The latest report from the foreign affairs select committee attacked the "manner and timing" of the announcement and demanded to know when the actual decision was taken.

Less than two months before the July 25 announcement, it pointed out, the Government had said that "discussions are at an early stage and there are no formal proposals".

"We regret the manner and timing of the Government's announcement...and the resulting lack of Parliamentary debate on the issue," the report concluded.

"We recommend that the Government inform us of the date on which it received the formal proposal from the US to include Menwith Hill in the BMD system. We recommend that there should be a full Parliamentary debate on these proposals."

The complaint came as part of a wide-ranging report about Russia, whose opposition to BMD could worsen and cause "further divisions in Europe" without work to build to co-operation, it said.