Renewed criticism in U.S. on NMD system

WASHINGTON, JULY 9. U.S. scientists renewed their calls for the White House not to authorise the deployment of a proposed missile defence system, following the failure of a missile interception test over the Pacific Ocean.

An American Physical Society spokesman, Mr. Robert Park, said the failure of the Pentagon's $ 100 millions test might lead the President, Mr. Bill Clinton, to postpone a decision on deployment.

``I just don't see how, after a test like this, (Mr. Clinton) can declare that now it's going to be able to work, and call for deployment,'' said Mr. Park, who was formerly a researcher at the U.S. Government nuclear defence laboratory in Sandia, New Mexico.

Mr. Park noted that even if a missile shield could be made effective, it would do nothing to prevent less sophisticated methods of delivering nuclear or biological weapons, such as driving a truck across the U.S. border.

Mr. George Bunn, a physics professor at Stanford University's Centre for International Security and Cooperation, said the test's failure ``certainly means there will be no decision to go full-blown ahead between now and the end of Clinton's term.''

Mr. Bunn, former official of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and who opposes deployment of the system, noted that under an April 1999 policy statute, the Government may only proceed with the missile shield system if it is first demonstrated to be technologically feasible.

At the White House, the National Security Council spokesman, Mr. P.J. Crowley, said the test failure would be evaluated by the Pentagon. ``It will have to be taken into account as we make a judgment on technical feasibility,'' he said.

Officials said the latest malfunction was irrelevant to their studies of the technical feasibility of the system, since the ageing booster rocket used in the test would be replaced by a newer model in the actual system, newspaper reported.

``It tells me we have more engineering work to do,'' said Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, Director of the missile defence effort. ``We had good confidence in this. ... This is rocket science - things do happen.''

China renews criticism

In Beijing, China has again voiced strong opposition to the U.S. over including Taiwan under the proposed missile defence shield, state media quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr. Sun Yuxi, today as saying.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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