The Polish foreign minister raises concerns about the recent Russian military drills in the region urging a substantial American military presence in Poland as a precaution.

"We would like to see US troops stationed in Poland to serve as a shield against Russian aggression," Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said, the Daily Telegraph reported on Friday.

"If you can still afford it, we need some strategic reassurance," he added.

"If you had on the one hand 900 tanks, and on the other six troops, would you be convinced?" Sikorski added referring to the alleged scales of Russia's joint military exercises in Belarus and the current US presence in Poland.

Belarus together with Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan hold regular exercises with Russia to strengthen the regional security body, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

The official comments came in support of claims made by the Polish media that the drills were held in preparation for an attack on the Polish soil.

Sikorski's Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov reacted to the remarks saying, "If he did say that, it makes me deeply astonished," Russian Information Agency Novosti reported.

The United States, earlier in the year, cancelled its plans to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland as part of a defense missile shield.

Alternatively, however, Washington and Warsaw have agreed to deploy sea-borne Standard Missile-3 (MS-3) short and medium-range projectile interceptors at an air base in the Polish city of Redzikowo.

HN/MMN