Brussels - The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, lectured sceptical NATO allies yesterday on the merits of anti-ballistic missiles and insisted Washington still planned to go ahead with the project.
"Our lack of defences against ballistic missiles creates incentives for missile proliferation which, combined with the development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, give future adversaries the ability to hold our populations hostage to terror and blackmail," he told alliance ministers.