United States unfolding missile defense in Europe de facto - Rogozin

Romania announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with the United States to deploy a U.S. missile interceptor system at a disused Soviet airbase on its territory. Moscow then issued an urgent request for legal guarantees from the United States that its missile shield will not target Russia's strategic nuclear forces.

"We have seen once again that the United States plans to unfold its system de facto without waiting for the end of [missile defense] talks with Russia, as the situation with the treaty with Romania shows," Rogozin told journalists after an ambassadorial-level NATO-Russia Council meeting on Thursday.

Rogozin said earlier on Thursday that Russia would cooperate with NATO only on a joint European missile defense network project, but will not be part of a U.S. missile defense in Europe. Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version