ISRAEL, U.S. JOIN IN NEW BMD PROJECT

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Israel and the United States have agreed to develop adefense umbrella against a range of missiles and rockets. The Israeli Defense Ministry and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency havebeen examining options for a joint research and development project toestablish a defense system against both short- and long-range missiles androckets. Officials said that in the first phase Israel would develop such asystem with U.S. financial aid.