Polish election-winners pledge Iraq pullout - US missile deployment for Poland on hold

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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C10%5C23%5Cstory_23-10-2007_pg4_11

WARSAW: Poland’s victorious pro-business party, which swept the ruling conservatives from office in a snap election, has promised to withdraw Polish troops from Iraq and heal rifts with fellow EU members.

The pro-European, economically liberal and socially conservative Civic Platform (PO) is likely to ruffle feathers in Washington because of his manifesto pledge to bring home the 900 Polish soldiers serving in Iraq.

“Poland’s foreign policy is going to change significantly,” said Pawel Swieboda, a former foreign ministry official who now heads a Warsaw think-tank. “PO will reinforce its European plank and won’t take American proposals as they come.” PO leader Donald Tusk’s Iraq promise is highly popular in Poland, where opinion polls show more than 80 percent oppose the mission.

41 percent of vote: Pro-business Civic Platform (PO) party was leading on 41.39 percent of the vote with 99 percent of the ballots in the general election counted, the national electoral commission said Monday.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003970947_usiran24.html

U.S. offers to delay Europe missile-system plan

By Peter Spiegel and James Gerstenzang

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — In a bid to win Russian support for a U.S. missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, the United States has proposed delaying its activation until there is concrete intelligence that Iran has long-range missiles, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.

Gates made the offer directly to senior Russian officials during a visit to Moscow last week but chose to publicize it on the same day President Bush highlighted the threat of Iran's missile program, which the president said might enable Tehran to strike the U.S. mainland by 2015.

The Eastern European system faces strong objections from Moscow, which fears it could be used against Russia's nuclear missiles, and from the Democratic-led Congress, which has cut funding for the program's construction.

Voters in Poland and the Czech Republic, where the system is to be based, also are overwhelmingly opposed.