The Czech Republic is to seek a U.S. military guarantee for security as compensation for providing a site for a new U.S. missile shield, a German newspaper quoted Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg as saying Friday.

"A security treaty with the United States would certainly please us very much," he told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper.

"A reiteration of the alliance and security guarantees: those are the things that interest us," said Schwarzenberg, whose country joined NATO in March 1999 together with Poland and Hungary.

"Fairly little has been done to demonstrate that this security guarantee, this unquestioning assistance, also applies to the new members," he said.

The United States plans to build a radar station for the interceptor system in the Czech Republic, triggering concern among its European allies including France and Germany, as well as strong criticism from Russia.

In an interview with another German newspaper Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger, Schwarzenberg criticized Germany for doubting the U.S. missile plan in his country and Poland.

The Czech cabinet agreed to allow the deployment of U.S. radar station in the Brdy military zone southwest of its capital, Prague.

But both houses of the Czech parliament must approve the deployment once terms are fixed.