"I am certain that the radar will not be deployed," Miloslav Vlcek, speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and member of the opposition Czech Social Democratic Party (CSDP), told Russia's Vesti television channel.
The agreement to station a U.S. radar in the Czech Republic was signed on July 8 by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.
On September 19, Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanova and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The pact governs the deployment of U.S. military personnel at the radar station.
However, both agreements have to be ratified by the Czech parliament, which earlier decided to postpone a debate on the issue until U.S. president-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated.
Vlcek said that CSDP and the Communists, which have between them 96 seats in the lower chamber, and also some members of the ruling Civic Democratic Party (CDP) would vote against the deployment of the U.S. radar.
"Ratification requires at least 101 votes," he said.
The lower house of the Czech parliament has 200 members. The CDP, led by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, has 81 seats.
The United States intends to deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland. Washington has said the shield is needed to protect against attacks from "rogue states" such as Iran. Russia has opposed the U.S. plans, saying they threaten Russia's security.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier threatened to deploy Iskander-M short-range missiles in the country's Kaliningrad exclave, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania, if the U.S. missile defense system was deployed in Central Europe.
After Barack Obama's U.S. presidential election victory, one of his foreign policy advisers said the president-elect was not committed to the missile shield, and would only continue with the project if its effectiveness was proven.
