PRAGUE, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Czech Lower House Deputy Chairman Lubomir Zaoralek voiced surprise at the government not seeking a reinforcement of the country's air protection within its talks with Washington about the proposed U.S. radar base on Czech soil, the Czech news agency CTK reported on Tuesday.

    Poland, which conducts similar negotiations with the United States, has asked the Americans to help reinforce its defense systems, Zaoralek said after a meeting of CSSD deputies with a U.S. military expert.

    Philip Coyle, a U.S. military expert opposing the U.S. missile defense policy arrived in the Czech Republic at the invitation of the Czech branch of Greenpeace.

    Recently, Warsaw has made its approval to the U.S. plan conditional on a special military agreement with Washington, its help in modernizing Polish air defense and more U.S. aid and technology supplies.

    The anti-missile technology the United States wants to locate in Europe has not proved capable of defending Europe or Asia from an attack by Iran or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Coyle said on Monday, adding that it would be ineffective against long-range ballistic missiles.

    Zaoralek said Coyle has confirmed some of the CSSD's doubts about the anti-missile system.

    He said the Czech center-right government has taken an irresponsible approach to the issue.

    The government, on its part, maintains that the missile defense radar, to be situated in the Brdy military district, 90 km southwest of capital Prague, would enhance the Czech Republic's security.

    Zaoralek reiterated that the CSSD wants the Central European missile defense system to be integrated in NATO.

    The United States initiated the plan to deploy an anti-missile radar base in the Czech Republic and a missile interceptor base in Poland.

    Negotiations between the Czech Republic and the United States on the radar project are still underway, while the former is expected to give its final decision later this year.

    Russia has expressed its strong objections to the U.S. missile defense program in Poland and the Czech Republic, citing its own security.

    Some 70 percent of Czechs reject the planned U.S. radar base in their country, according to the latest survey conducted by the CVVM polling institute.