The agreement to upgrade the Thule base in northwestern Greenland and several other accords were signed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Danish and Greenland counterparts Per Stig Moeller and Josef Motzfeldt.

"Together we will meet the security challenges of the 21st century, from missile defense to international terrorism," Powell said at the signing ceremony held in Igaliku, a picturesque Inuit village on a fjord with a population of around 40.

The main agreement signed Friday calls for upgrading and modernizing systems at Thule, the northernmost installation of the US air force and a key radar facility and listening post.

Thule incorporates an alert system aimed at detecting ballistic missiles, a so-called BMEWS, or Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, as well as ICBMs, or Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

The planned modernization of the base's radar, which today covers 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) -- all the way into Russian territory -- has put Thule back on the map as an essential link in a future US missile defense program aimed at protecting the United States from hostile nations.

Local Greenland authorities, however, have opposed expanding the use of the base to include the potential to intercept missiles.

Powell said talk of interceptors was premature.

"Right now we are some distance from determining where we might need interceptors," he told reporters. "There is no plan right now for anything other than what we have already made known to the home-rule government (of Greenland) and Kingdom of Denmark."

Moeller, the Danish foreign minister, said Denmark was not fundamentally opposed to missile defense but "we have said yes to that (the agreements signed Friday) and nothing else."

Powell, speaking to Greenland television before the signing ceremony, said the United States "don't want to do anything that would put at risk the strong relationship we have had for many, many years."

"The updated agreement provides for consultations so that we are partners and we will move forward together," he said. "It allows us to make sure that we are providing for the kinds of threats that the civilized world might see in the future (from rogue states)."

The other agreements signed Friday by Powell, the first US secretary of state to visit Greenland, and his Danish and Greenland counterparts involve environmental and technical cooperation and building a mechanism to increase trade and economic ties.

The Thule base, just 1,524 kilometers (947 miles) south of the North Pole, was built between 1951 and 1953 under a defense treaty between the United States and Denmark signed on April 27, 1951.

At the height of the Cold War and through the end of the 1980s the base housed more than 10,000 employees, mainly Americans, as well as fighter jets and bombers capable of carrying nuclear bombs.

Today, only about 550 people, 125 of whom are American, remain at Thule.

Before signing the agreements, Powell toured Norse ruins dating from 1200 and sat down for a lunch that included local delicacies such as roast musk ox, reindeer steak, trout, smoked salmon, halibut and shrimp.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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