The United States met with NATO allies and high-ranking officials from Russia in Brussels on Thursday to reassure everyone that a proposed American missile shield  really will protect vast parts of Europe and not pose a threat to Russia. The Russians remained skeptical, but the European allies were coming around to the idea of an American missile shield -- not primarily a NATO system -- protecting their territory from nuclear attack by "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea.

The Americans argued that their plan for 10 interceptors in Poland would pose no threat to Russia's vast Cold-War arsenal of intercontinental missiles.

German papers on Friday are impressed by the hand America showed and wary of Russia's motives -- but still not sure about the project itself.

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"NATO has offered to fill the gaps in a US-designed missile shield that doesn't quite reach southeastern Europe. Now Turks, Greeks and Bulgarians may work with NATO soldiers in the future to protect all of Europe against missiles fired from the Middle East … (With this compromise) NATO has found a pragmatic and cost-efficient solution for a problem that has plagued it for years. Any debate over its own extensive missile shield is now obsolete."

"Only two questions remain: How will Russia deal with the new situation … And whether a missile shield will even work."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The question is whether Moscow wants to be convinced about the harmlessness of such a system. Not even the most paranoid nationalists in Moscow's military leadership believe that a couple of handfuls of slim interceptor rockets really threaten their enormous country. Russian resentment has deeper roots, and it may not be allayed by warnings about Iranian weapons."

"Russia has had to stand by powerlessly and watch while NATO bombed Belgrade; while NATO absorbed former Soviet allies like the Baltic states, Poland and the Czech Republic; while the US invaded Iraq -- and now even neighbors like Georgia and Ukraine want to join the alliance. Russia is playing defense, and the western interceptor missiles serve as perfect weapons."

"Moscow can counter with ideas that have long fit into its geopolitical calculations: a modernization of its own nuclear arsenal, and a retreat from the INF Treaty (to eliminate intermediate-range missiles) signed under Gorbachev which the Russian military has always resented. Putin must also have noticed that the US and Europe have argued every day about the missile shield since he raised objections. Hard to imagine that he wants to end this disharmony anytime soon."

The business daily Handelsblatt writes:

"The US keeps mentioning 'rogue states,' like Iran and North Korea, which might someday threaten Europe or America with long-distance ballistic missiles. German Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung has also warned against non-state terrorist threats. But Moscow says Iran still has no nuclear weapons and won't have long-range missiles for a very long time … (from which) Moscow draws a clear conclusion that a US anti-missile system can only be used against Russia."

"This atmosphere of suspicion is exactly what makes the missile-shield debate so dangerous. NATO has to quell these fears once and for all, and Washington has laid the groundwork to do so. With its offer to include Russia in the anti-missile umbrella, and even allow Russian inspections of the planned American base in Poland, US negotiators went further than many NATO observers expected."

"The discussion (among NATO allies) is no longer about 'new' and 'old' Europeans, but whether the planned American system can protect all of Europe. So far it can't -- as even NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has criticized. But if the US can offer a working missile shield for a viable price that would also include southern Europe, the resistance in most European countries will fall away."