KIEV, March 14 ??“ The Ukrainian space industry may play a role in developing the missile defense shield over Europe, the head of the US missile defense program said Wednesday.

Lieutenant General Henry Obering, chief of the US Missile Defense Agency, said the project had been already discussed with the Ukrainian officials last year.

"We have seen space industry cooperation that could emerge from these discussions," Obering said quoted by AFP. "Ukrainian industry could benefit by cooperating, as well as US industry."

Obering was in Ukraine for meetings with Ukrainian officials over the US plans to place elements of its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. He said the proposed shield posed no threat either to Ukraine or its eastern neighbor Russia.

Rockets that the US wants to place in Poland "are defensive weapons and do not even carry any type of explosive or warhead," Obering told reporters. Their only purpose was to counter a perceived growing threat from Iran, he added.

In the unlikely event of debris falling back to Earth after a missile interception, that debris "could not fall on Russia or Ukrainian territory," Obering said.

Obering repeated the US message that the missile defense shield was needed to counter a threat from Iran.

"What we don't want... is to wake up and have an Iranian long-range missile capability and not have a defense against it," said Obering.

During Obering's press conference, security personnel had to forcibly eject a handful of pro-Russian protestors who managed to disrupt the proceedings by heckling him. They waved banners and chanted "Yankee go home!" before being removed.

Outside the venue where Obering spoke, around 50 protesters chanted "Don't Let the NATO bandits in!" and "Ukraine, Belarus, Russia!" They waved banners that read "We Are Not Yankees -- We Are Slavs!"

The protests were backed by the Progressive Socialist Party, a small and vehemently pro-Russian group that had been recently stepping up campaign against Ukraine??™s plans to join NATO.

Natalia Vitrenko, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, has recently visited Moscow for meetings with top Russian officials before launching the active anti-NATO campaign. (jp/afp/ez)