A top Pentagon official in charge of missile defense said Wednesday a limited missile defense system would be in place by the end of the year, meeting a key goal President George W. Bush set in this election year.

Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that thePentagon will have deployed eight interceptors by the end of the year, followed by 12 in the next year.

He said the initial system would provide a capability "to defeat near-term threats of greatest concern," although it will not guarantee a 100 percent defense against missiles.

The Bush administration plans to deploy a preliminary missile defense system of six rocket interceptors in Alaska and four in California by the end of September, saying the United States needssuch a system to guard against long-range missile attacks by so-called rogue states.

But critics said the timetable is devised to field a missile defense system less than two months before the election so Bush can point to it as a fulfilled campaign pledge. They said a rush to deployment could lead to unforeseen cost increases and technical failures.

Bush has asked Congress for 10.2 billion US dollars for missiledefense for 2005, up from 9 billion dollars approved for fiscal 2004. The Pentagon is expected to spend 21.8 billion dollars on the system between 1997 and 2009, according to a congressional report.

Source: Xinhua