Bulgaria should be the active partner when it comes to plans to deploy US air defense missiles on its soil, the country's prime minister told journalists after his dinner with the American president.

“The question about Bulgaria's support for taking part in a new US missile defense system in Europe has not been officially posed, but when this happens, the parliament will have the final say,” Boyko Borisov said late on Thursday, after a dinner hosted by US President Barack Obama in Prague, which was attended by the leaders of 11 Eastern European members of NATO.

In Borisov's words the meeting focused “on a whole range of problems”, including the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Iran and Afghanistan.

The countries' leaders have declared their solidarity for taking part in the Afghanistan mission, Borisov pointed out.

“We all declared our solidarity and vowed participation, but I asked the question how much longer we are going to do that. Our concern is that after the Soviet Union lost the war, NATO soldiers have been dying there for years on end. How much longer is it going to take? Five, ten, twenty years? The locals feel that they have a chance to improve their lives after the war and just wait for NATO to leave,” Borisov said.

The American President Barack Obama has recommended to his advisers to have a direct telephone connection with Bulgaria, because “the country knows the situation on the Balkans well”.

President Obama expressed gratitude for Bulgaria's decision to accept one detainee from the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Bulgaria's Borisov in his turn presented country's upcoming Bulgarian Ambassador to Washington Elena Poptodorova.

That was the first meeting of Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov with the US President Barack Obama. It comes about a month after Borisov said he supports plans for taking part in a new US missile defence system in Europe and played down Russian fears about the system.

Meanwhile neighboring Romania announced that it would host interceptor missiles as part of a US missile defense system on its soil.

A US State Department official has said earlier the facilities in Romania are to become operational by 2015 and are designed as protection against "current and emerging ballistic missile threats from Iran."

The planned deployment in Bulgaria and Romania comes after US President Barack Obama scrapped plans for a radar and interceptor missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland, which Russia fiercely opposed as a national security threat and a blow on its nuclear deterrent.

The plans have drawn sharp criticism from Moscow, where officials described the earlier project to base radar and missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland as a threat to Russia.

Washington says the missile shield is designed to protect against short- and medium-range missiles from Iran, and is not directed against Russia.

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