The Thule radar station on Greenland, a Danish overseas territory, is thought to be one of the major listening posts required to develop the "son of star wars" missile defence system.

Members of Denmark's parliament voted 97 to 12 in favour of the government's proposal to begin negotiations following a request from Washington to modernise the base and renew a 1951 defence agreement between the United States and Denmark.

Among those opposed to the plan were Greenland's two deputies to the Danish parliament, representing the local ruling party and the opposition, who criticized the decision as going against Greenlanders' interests.

Greenland's 57,000 inhabitants generally fear the US missile shield will put their island at the centre of a new conflict.

Others who voted against the proposal were the far left parties, who also fear that the shield will start a new arms race and make Greenland a target.

A former prime minister of Greenland and a member of the ruling Siumut party, Lars Emil Johansen, has accused the Danish government of bowing to US demands in order to gain "foreign policy advantages".

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller is expected to travel soon to Washington with the head of Greenland's local government, Hans Enoksen, to negotiate an accord over the use of the Thule base.

Greenland, a vast island in the Arctic which has been under Danish control since 1721, shed its status as a Danish colony in 1953, becoming instead a dependent territory, and won limited autonomy in 1979.

It recently won increased control over Greenland-related foreign and security policy, in exchange for accepting the modernisation of the Thule base.

Sparsely populated, the overwhelmingly Inuit population is spread over an area more than twice the size of France and Germany combined.

SPACE.WIRE