NUUK, Greenland (AFP) - Political leaders in Greenland, a Danish semi-autonomous territory, were in an uproar Wednesday after the government in faraway Copenhagen said it was ready to approve US plans for a controversial missile defence shield.

The head of Greenland's local government, Hans Enoksen, said he had sent a letter of protest to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Denmark announced on Tuesday in a report that it was ready to allow Washington to modernise its radar station on Greenland as part of plans to develop the controversial National Missile Defense (NMD) programme.

But Greenland's 57,000 residents generally oppose the US plan because they fear it will put their island at the centre of a new conflict.

The United States has formally asked Denmark to allow a technical upgrading of the Cold War-era Thule base, in the northwest of the Arctic island, thought to be one of the major listening posts required for the shield to be operational.

The Danish government said in its report that it was in favour of the US request, but it had not yet taken a final decision.

Enoksen said he was disappointed and frustrated by the contents of the report, which was compiled without any input from Greenlanders.

"We would have liked a document that presented the different points of view on this missile defense shield and this report did not do it," Enoksen said in a statement.

"I find it incomprehensible that the Danish government chose to publish this report before it was even translated into Greenlandic. I think it is very difficult to accept that Copenhagen did not demonstrate a greater understanding of the importance of including Greenland's leaders in this," he said.

Greenland's opposition far-left IA Party has called for large demonstrations to take place on Monday in Greenland to protest against Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller's visit to Nuuk to discuss Copenhagen's stance.

The Danish government is expected to announce its formal decision at the end of April or early May, according to government officials, but it is known to be favourable to the US plan.

The government has stressed the shield's use as a defense weapon, thereby rejecting Greenlanders' concerns that it would increase instability in the world and fears that their participation would make Greenland a target of "rogue" states.

A member of NATO, Copenhagen said in the report it was convinced it must contribute to the United States' security in order to be in a better position to one day discuss the possibility of a missile defense shield for Europe with NATO allies.

The Thule base, built in 1951 as an early warning station in the event of a Soviet nuclear missile strike on the West, still provides a surveillance operation for the northern hemisphere.