The New York Times said the administration's proposal calls for installing 10 missile interceptors at a European site by 2011 to protect Europe and the United States against missile attacks by Iran.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said no decisions have been made but acknowledged consultations were under way with interested European allies, including Poland.

"We expect these consultations will continue in the coming weeks and months with countries that have expressed an interest," he told reporters.

"We are collecting and evaluating information on a variety of sources prior to making any sort of a decision on whether or not to move forward on placing additional ballistic missile defenses in Europe," he said.

He said the United States has consulted European allies on the feasibility of setting up missile defense systems on their territory for several years.

The Czech Republic, which The New York Times article also mentioned as a site under consideration, said Monday that the plan was "just an idea, there is no concrete proposal."

Although Whitman would not say whether the move is aimed at Iran, Washington clearly views Tehran as the top US threat in the Middle East.

It comes amid a mounting confrontation with Iran over a uranium enrichment program that Washington believes is aimed at developing fissile material for nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programs are for power generation.

Iran in April said it had tested a new generation medium-range missile featuring multiple warheads and radar-evading technology. Pentagon officials were skeptical of the claims.

A senior US defense official told AFP last year the European site could be very similar to the US site in Fort Greely, Alaska where half a dozen ground-based missiles are positioned to intercept potential long-range missile attacks from North Korea.

He said a single site in central Europe would provide both the United States and Europe protection against long-range missiles fired from the Middle East or North Africa. It would also require radars deployed forward for early detection of a missile shot.

The New York Times said a recommendation on a European site is expected to be made this summer to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The Pentagon has asked Congress for 56 million dollars to begin initial work on the long-envisioned antimissile site, a request that has run into some opposition in Congress, it said.

The final cost, including the interceptors themselves, is estimated at 1.6 billion dollars.

The newspaper said the establishment of an anti-missile base in eastern Europe would have enormous political implications.

The deployment of interceptors in Poland, for example, would create the first permanent American military presence on that nation's soil and further solidify the close ties between the defense establishments of the two nations, the report said.

While the plan has been described in congressional testimony and in published reports, it has received relatively little attention in the United States, according to the newspaper.

But it is a subject of lively discussion in Poland and has also prompted Russian charges that Washington's hidden agenda is to expand the American presence in the former Warsaw Pact nation, the Times said.

"This is not a proposal designed to counter Russia's offensive missiles," Whitman said. "When you're talking about a small number of interceptors you wouldn't be talking about the types of capabilities to counter Russian capabilities."

In a separate article on relations between the United States, Iran and Europe, The New York Times also reported that four of the biggest European banks have started curbing their activities in Iran, prodded by the United States with threats of fines and lost business.

The four banks -- UBS and Credit Suisse banks of Switzerland, ABN Amro of the Netherlands, and London-based HSBC -- have made varying levels of disclosure about the limits on their activities in Iran in the past six months, the paper said.

Almost all large European banks have branches or bureaus in the United States that are subject to American laws.

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