Radek Sikorski told The Associated Press that Poland was taken off-guard by the Obama administration's announcement in September that it was scrapping a plan to deploy long range interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic in favor of a different configuration.

Press reports of the impending announcement came ahead of official word from the Obama administration to the Polish government. It also coincided awkwardly with the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the outset of World War II.

"We were a little surprised by the timing," Sikorski said.

He added, however, that Poland was now satisfied that the new system which will focus on defending against shorter range missiles from Iran will be an improvement for Poland's security, and the Polish government wants to move beyond the tensions over the decision to reverse a policy advocated by the Bush administration.

"That's the past," he said. "Let's forget about it."

Sikorski was meeting U.S. national security adviser Gen. James Jones on Wednesday. A meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had to be postponed because Clinton extended a trip to the Middle East at the last minute.

Under Obama's new missile defense plan, U.S. Navy ships equipped with anti-missile weapons _ such as the Navy's Standard Missile-3 _ would form a front line of defense in the eastern Mediterranean. Those would be combined with land-based anti-missile systems to be placed on shore in Europe.

Obama has promised Poland and the Czech Republic the right to host elements of the new system and the Polish government has expressed its willingness. Sikorski has said that Poland's main interest is in having a presence of U.S. troops on Polish soil as a security guarantee against Russian assertiveness.

"We are a border country of NATO, and we all know what it means," he said.

Last month, Russia carried out military exercises in Western Russia and Belarus, which Sikorski said was perplexing.

"We don't understand what kind of message Russia was trying to send with the largest military exercises on NATO's borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union," he said.

He said that last month's visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had reassured Poland that the Obama administration would not compromise relations with Central Europe as it courts better relations with Russia.

"I think they are doing what I would have advised which is that the more you talk to Russia, the more you should talk to Russia's neighbors," he said.