The United States and Poland signed a deal yesterday to station elements of a US missile defense shield on Polish soil, a move certain to aggravate Russia-Western tensions over Moscow's intervention in Georgia.

The agreement was signed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski at a ceremony also attended by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Lech Kaczynski.

The site in Poland hosting 10 interceptor rockets and a giant radar in neighboring Czech Republic will form the European part of a global system Washington says it is assembling to shoot down ballistic missiles it fears could be launched by "rogue" states or militant groups like Al-Qaida.