At present the USA cooperates in this field with Japan, Italy, Australia, Britain and Denmark.

A preparatory bilateral meeting on the Czech-U.S. agreement will take place next Friday, the ministry said.

The talks will be preceded by a seminar that will be organised by the Czech Foreign ministry and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on Wednesday and Thursday.

"The aim of the seminar is to open possibilities for cooperation between Czech and U.S. companies in the sphere of research, development and industrial production of missile defence systems," the ministry said.

The companies and research institutions are to establish contacts at the seminar, the ministry said.

The seminar is to be attended by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and MDA director Henry Obering as well as representatives of significant foreign arms producers that participate in the construction of the missile defence system, such as Raython, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

The USA plans to build a radar base in the Brdy military area, some 90 km southwest of Prague, as part of its missile defence shield, along with a base with ten interceptor missiles in Poland.

The shield is reportedly to protect a big part of Europe and the United States against missiles that countries like Iran might launch.

The Czech government started negotiations with the USA last year.

According to public opinion polls, a majority of Czechs are opposed to the radar base, and the same is true of Poles who do not want the missile base.

The U.S. plan is also criticised by Russia.

The location of the U.S. radar base on Czech soil is to be specified by two treaties, the talks on which are to continue at the end of January.

They main agreement is to define the purpose of the radar. The talks will also concern the legal conditions for the stay of U.S. soldiers.