RUSSIA REGARDS U.S. RADAR DEPLOYMENT IN NORWAY AS ABM TREATY VIOLATION

MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko has expressed concern about the construction of a U.S. radar station in Norway.

The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty bans the deployment of such stations outside U.S. territory, Yakovenko said in a statement received by Interfax on Tuesday.

"The Russian side has raised this question with the United States many times and expressed grave concern to the Norwegian government over the continuing construction of the radar station in the immediate vicinity of the Russian border," he said.

"However, Moscow still has not received any explanations reducing these apprehensions," Yakovenko said.

The situation with the station is developing in such a way that Norway could become involved in the violation of the ABM treaty. "Russia would not want the situation to unfold in such a manner," the statement says.

U.S. and Norwegian officials claim that the radar station is meant for space monitoring, he said. "However in actual fact, and this has been confirmed by foreign specialists, the station is meant to detect the launch of ballistic missiles, and before being moved to Norway it was used in the United States for testing the American strategic missile defense system," Yakovenko said.

"It is evident that the radar station in Norway may also be used in the interests of the American national missile defense system banned by the ABM treaty," he stated.