The confrontation between Russia and the United States was set to deepen last night after Warsaw and Washington struck a deal to set up a missile shield on Polish territory.

Russia bitterly opposes the plan and Moscow responded immediately by cancelling a planned visit to Poland by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, scheduled for next month. The Poles are expecting other repercussions.

Under the terms of the agreement – which will not come into force until technical details have been settled and the whole package is presented to parliament – the Americans will establish a small, permanent garrison in Poland of about 110 men before the year 2012. They will install the complex electronics, linking the shield with radar stations that are to be based in the Czech Republic.

“In our opinion the terms of the deal means we have a security guarantee from America,” a source close to Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister, said.

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An important part of that guarantee was US readiness to set up a battery of about 96 Patriot missiles in Poland, substantially modernising Polish air defences. The missile shield, the Americans say, is intended to shoot down rockets from Iran or other Middle Eastern states. The Patriots, by contrast, are supposed to reassure Poland in case the Russians start rattling their sabres.

The talks have been bogged down for months – with the US reluctant to take on the cost of the Patriots – but the crisis in Georgia has galvanised both the US and Poland into action.

“Our arguments about the need for a permanent presence of US troops and missiles on Polish soil have been taken seriously by the American side,” Mr Tusk said. “The events in the Caucasus show clearly that such security guarantees are indispensable.”

The White House said that President Bush was “very pleased” with the deal. “We are comfortable that we negotiated a strong agreement,” said John Rood, the US chief negotiator. “It elevates our security relationship to a new level.”

The Central and Eastern European states have been unnerved by the Russian military action against Georgia, with its echoes of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia almost exactly 40 years ago.

Last Tuesday President Kaczynski of Poland mobilised his offiical jet, picked up the presidents of Estonia and Lithuania, landed in Kiev to take the Ukranian President on board, and then flew on to Georgia to take part in a solidarity rally.

The flight appears to have been too short to work out a coherent strategy but the speeches were strongly hostile to Russia. President Kaczynski said that Russia had shown its true face and that its actions were criminal.

Last month President Medvedev of Russia said that the US missiles in Poland would “only worsen the situation”. “We will be forced to respond – the EU and the US have been warned,” he said.

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