Prague  - Czech and US negotiators completed talks Friday on a second missile shield pact defining conditions for stationing US troops at the system's planned base on Czech soil, the Czech Defence Ministry said.

The center-right government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is to take up the so-called Status of Forces Agreement within two weeks, said ministry spokesman Jan Pejsek.

Signing in Prague by Czech Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova and a US representative should follow within days after the cabinet gives its approval, he said.

Negotiators settled several sticky points, including taxes and whether the treaty should apply to other US deployments on Czech territory in addition to the planned radar base.

The pact's content would be published only after government approval, Pejsek said. It complements a diplomatic deal signed in Prague by Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on July 8.

After more than a year of tough bargaining, Washington also sealed a deal with Warsaw on August 20 under which Poland will host 10 interceptor missiles for the system.

In both Central European countries, missile shield treaties require parliamentary approval.

The plan to place the US military bases in former Soviet satellites, now members of NATO and the European Union, has angered Russia.

While Washington says the shield is aimed at countering potential long-range missile attacks from so-called rogue states such as Iran, Moscow considers it a threat to its own security. (dpa)