The United States is close to activating a missile shield over southern Europe as part of its effort to shore up regional defenses in the face of a missile threat from Iran, The Washington Post reported.

Citing unnamed Pentagon officials, the newspaper said the US Defense Department is nearing a deal to establish a key radar ground station probably in Turkey or Bulgaria.

Installation of the high-powered X-band radar would enable the first phase of the shield to become operational next year, the report said.

In September 2009 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.

Former US president George W. Bush's administration devised the missile defense plan, saying that it was a precautionary measure against attacks from the so called 'rogue states' like Iran and North Korea.

During his visit to Bulgaria in June 2007 George Bush held talks with the country's government, a staunch US ally, which was concerned it may be left out of the plan, which would include bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The issue has contributed to raised tensions between the US and Russia, which responded furiously to what it saw as an encroachment in the former Soviet bloc and threatened to deploy its own missile system in Kaliningrad, an exclave near Poland.

But according to The Post, a plan to protect southern Europe from missiles is still being implemented.

The US military is also working with Israel and allies in the Persian Gulf to build and upgrade their missile defense capabilities, the report said.

The United States installed a radar ground station in Israel in 2008 and is looking to place another in an Arab country in the gulf region, the paper said.

The radars would provide a critical early warning of any launches from Iran, according to The Post.

The missile defenses in Europe, Israel and the Gulf are technically separate and in different stages of development, the paper said.

But they are all designed to plug into command-and-control systems operated by, or with, the US military, The Post pointed out.

The Israeli radar is operated by US personnel, and it is already providing information to US Navy ships in the Mediterranean, the paper noted.

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