Budapest - Hungary on Thursday denied press reports that it was one of three countries being courted by the US as a potential site for a proposed anti-missile base aimed at stopping attacks from the Middle East.
'There was some preliminary informal contact on this issue a long time ago, but there has been nothing for the last year-and-a-half,' Foreign Ministry Spokesman Viktor Polgar told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'This has surfaced in Prague, but there is nothing similar going on in Hungary.'
Czech newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes earlier in the week became the latest media outlet to report that Hungary was a potential competitor for the missile base, adding that a decision was imminent.
Poland - one of the closest European supporters of US defence policy - has also indicated an interest in hosting the site and debate has been ongoing in the Polish government and media for many months.
However, a spokesman for the US Department of Defence played down the suggestions of an upcoming deal with one of the countries, which he also refused to name.
'The decision is not made and I couldn't say when it will be made, but we are in discussion with various different governments in the region on the potential base,' Lieutenant Commander Joe Carpenter told dpa.
'The decision hasn't even been made whether or not we will build in Europe. The first question is whether or not the system is viable,' he added.
Nonetheless, Carpenter said that the US believed the base 'could offer benefits to the US and regional allies in countering emerging threats from the Middle East where certain nations are developing a ballistic missile threat.'
The New York Times had earlier reported that the missile defence system was aimed specifically at countering a perceived future threat from Iran and that the US wanted it in place by 2011.
US President George W Bush has pushed for the system, which dates back in a more ambitious form to the administration of Ronald Reagan. The original idea - dubbed Star Wars - was to counter the Cold War threat from Soviet missiles.
However, defence analysts from such organizations as the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies have raised doubts over whether or not such a system could work.
