The Wall Street Journal newspaper reports that the United States is shelving plans for a missile defence system based in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Washington administration is said to have intelligence that Iran is not as far advanced in the development of long-range missiles as had been thought. This means the threat of an attack on the United States or Europe is not as great as was thought, says the paper.

The present US government inherited the idea of a missile shield from the Bush administration, which was seriously concerned about the possibility of an Iranian attack. Russia, however, sees the construction of a US missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic as a menace to its own security and has repeatedly threatened counter measures.

photo: Long-range missile (Flickr / Kevinhooa)