Speaking in the House of Commons, Graham rejected opposition suggestions that the national missile defence system, or NMD, was a space-based missile system.

"Canada," he insisted, "remains firmly opposed to the installation of weapons in space.

"The US missile defence system, to be in place by the year 2004, does not include the installation of weapons in space."

Nevertheless, Graham suggested Canada still had some problems, which he did not specify, in the US plan.

"We regularly voice our concerns and any discussions we have on NMD will in fact enable us to voice those concerns more clearly and more cogently," he said.

Speaking to a debate on a motion from the regional Bloc Quebecois party calling on the government not to join the US missile defence programme, Graham spoke mostly of the potential benefits to Canada of signing on.

He pointed out that Britain had agreed to provide Washington with radar facilities and Denmark was currently negotiating with Washington an agreement to update a military radar site in Greenland.

Those two radar sites, combined with facilities in the United States, would provide blanket coverage of the whole of North America, he said.

Nevertheless, for Canada, said Graham, it was important to realise attacks from rogue states or terrorist groups against the United States would automatically affect Canada, and vice versa.

"An attack on Seattle," he said, "will inevitably be an attack on Vancouver, as will an attack on Buffalo (New York) be one on Toronto."

Additionally, the future of NORAD, the joint US-Canada air defence system could be complicated if Canada did not join the new missile defence system.

Graham said: "There is a great deal of overlap in the NORAD mission and missile defence and many assets are used for both mission.

"If missile defence becomes an exclusively American project, and thus remains out of NORAD, the role and relevance of this important partnership, so crucial for our participation in the defence of North America, will come into question."

SPACE.WIRE