Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair has lobbied the U.S. to install parts of its missile defense system in Britain, arguing it would offer protection for Europe.

``We welcome the plans to locate further missile defense assets in Europe, which are part of providing missile defense for Europe,'' Blair's spokesman Emily Hands told reporters in London. ``The prime minister thinks it is a good idea that we're part of the consideration by the U.S.''

Negotiations are ``at an early stage,'' Hands said. The Economist reported today that the U.S. was aiming to start building missile launchers for the system somewhere in Europe in 2008. It said Poland and the Czech Republic also want the system based in their countries.

U.S. missile bases in Britain could be unpopular within Blair's Labour Party, which in the 1980s supported unilateral nuclear disarmament. The decision to put U.S. nuclear missiles in South England in 1989 sparked decade-long peace protests.

Hands refused to discuss which countries were viewed as a threat, or at what level discussions had taken place. The U.K. government separately is planning to replace its 30-year-old Trident nuclear missile submarines at a cost of 20 billion pounds ($39 billion).

In 2003, the U.K. agreed to allow the U.S. to upgrade radar stations at the Fylingdales Royal Air Force Base in northern England, one of the steps to allowing the missile shield. At the time, then-Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said the U.K. would keep its options open about Britain taking the U.S. missile shield.

Pyramid-Shaped Radars

Improvements at the base in Yorkshire will upgrade pyramid- shaped early-warning radars built in the 1980s. Separate systems would shoot down missiles as they approach their targets.

Concern about Bush's national-missile-defense plan echoed hesitance among Labour party members to follow the U.S. to war in Iraq in 2003. Labour lawmakers are upset that Bush abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia to push forward with his missile shield.

Fylingdales has been operating as a ballistic missile tracking station since 1963, monitoring objects in space. The site used to house giant golf-ball-shaped radars. These were replaced in the 1980s with pyramid units that will retain their external profile after the upgrade is completed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 23, 2007 07:11 EST