President George Bush held talks on Wednesday with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek on the deployment of a U.S. missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland.
The leaders said they are close to signing a deal, but neither gave any details of a timeline pledging to complete the work on the agreement as soon as possible.
"There is a will to get it done," the U.S. president told journalists following the meeting. "These aren't easy agreements to put in place."
Washington wants to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland, along with the Czech radar, to counter a missile threat from Iran and other "rogue" states. Russia fiercely opposes the plans, viewing them as a destabilizing factor for Europe and a threat to its national security.
Bush reiterated on Wednesday that the mooted missile shield is not aimed against Moscow as Russia poses no threat.
"Russia is not a threat to peace," he said. "This is a system to deal with threats that will be evolving in the 21st century."
Earlier in the month speaking at his final annual news conference in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia may have to retarget some of its rockets at the missile defenses that the U.S. is planning to deploy in Central Europe.
"Our experts believe the system threatens our national security. If it appears, we will be forced to respond appropriately - we will have to retarget part of our systems against those missiles," Putin said.
The U.S. administration is planning to construct a base for 10 two-stage missile interceptors in Poland, modify its X-band radar on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific and relocate it to the Czech Republic, and to deploy a new forward-based radar to an unspecified location.
The 2008-2013 budget for the project is estimated at about $4.8 billion.
