US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed a missile defence deal with Poland.

The agreement for Poland to host ten US interceptor missiles at a base 115 miles from Russia's western border has placed added strain on Moscow's ties with the West following its invasion of Georgia.

Dr Rice and Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski signed the deal in the presence of both the Polish president and prime minister.

President Lech Kaczynski said the agreement marked "an important day in our history."

The deal "strengthens Poland's position in the world," he said in a televised address on Tuesday.

Poland and the US spent a year and a half negotiating, and talks had snagged on Polish demands that the US bolster its defences with Patriot missiles in exchange for hosting the new base.

Washington gave in last week as Poland invoked the Georgia conflict to strengthen its case.

The Patriots are meant to protect Poland from short-range missiles from neighbours such as Russia.

Mr Kaczynski said that the missile defence shield was purely a defensive system and not a threat to any nation, saying: "No one who has good intentions toward us and toward the Western world should be afraid of it."

Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a harsh response to the deal on its website: "Russia in this case will have to react and not only through diplomatic protests."

The statement described the missile shield as "one of the instruments in an extremely dangerous bundle of American military projects involving the one-sided development of a global missile shield system".

It scorned the decision to base a battery of US Patriot missiles in Poland, saying it would provide no protection against any "imaginary Iranian danger".

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