The new U.S. administration under President Barack Obama probably will not station a radar base on Czech soil, Czech Senate foreign committee head Jiri Dienstbier said on a TV discussion program on Sunday.

Dienstbier said he believes the United States will not build the planned Central European elements of its missile shield -- neither the radar near Prague nor interceptor missiles in Poland -- in near future.

"The world financial crisis may be a good pretext that the project would be postponed," Dienstbier said.

According to the lawmaker, the project might be implemented only if the U.S. radar becomes part of a new U.S.-Russian cooperation.

"Either there will be a joint missile defense of NATO, Russia and the United States, or there will not be any radar," Dienstbier said.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said on the program that the Czech-U.S. treaties on the base will not be reformulated even if Russia participates more in the missile defense.

Former security aide to U.S. presidents Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was also a guest to the discussion program, said the construction of the radar was not an urgent matter for the United States.

Brzezinski said the usefulness of some of the technology has not yet been proved.

The Czech-U.S. treaties on the radar were signed last year, but they are yet to be ratified by the Czech parliament in which the right-wing government may not have enough support to push them through.

The leftist opposition and several coalition MPs oppose the project. Opinion polls show that about two thirds of Czechs are against the base and want a referendum to decide on it.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2009)