Polish and US officials planned to sign a deal Wednesday to station US missile interceptors in Poland, fuelling conflict with Russia in a region once dominated by Moscow.
Poland agreed last week to host part of the US missile shield in return for military aid, including a battery of Patriot air defence missiles in Poland, capping more than a year of tough bargaining.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due in Warsaw for the signing after attending NATO talks on the crisis in Georgia. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski was to sign for Poland.
The US says the system is meant to defend against missile threats from "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea. Russia vehemently opposes the shield, saying it is aimed against Moscow's arsenal of strategic nuclear missiles.
Russia's military brass immediately warned that stationing the 10 missile interceptors would make Poland a target. The Czech government agreed in July to host a radar base, the other part of a system the Pentagon wants to set up in the two ex-Soviet bloc nations.
The US plan has been unpopular in both countries, with polls showing majorities opposed.
But a survey taken after Russia and Georgia went to war showed Poles increasingly supportive of the missile shield. Some 58 per cent now support Pentagon's plan, said the poll taken Saturday for the Rzeczpospolita daily.
While Polish and US diplomats have denied a link, the timing has drawn criticism that the deal could be interpreted as Poland's response to Russia's military assault on Georgia.
Wojciech Olejniczak, head of the leftist opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), said making the deal in the midst of the Georgia conflict will create the impression of a link.
"The shield isn't supposed to be aimed at Russia," Olejniczak told the Polish Press Agency, "or in relation to Russia's actions."
With a US presidential election coming up in November, others said George W Bush's imminent departure from the White House also pushed the deal through. Some Polish officials hinted the next president might be less inclined to strike a bargain with Poland.
Poland's former top negotiator in the missile-shield talks, Witold Waszczykowski, recently told Newsweek's Polish edition that the new US president will likely focus on other foreign policy issues.
"The new administration will begin work in the middle of next year. And what will they take up?" he said. "Not the shield in Poland, but Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia."
