The United States government has rejected a two billion US dollar proposal from landowners for the use of a high profile missile defence testing range at Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands.
The US State Department negotiator told the Marshall Islands that it did not consider the request, in order to use the site for another fifty years, to be a viable basis for negotiations.
The Kwajalein missile range is playing a central role in the Bush Administration's accelerated push for a deployable missile defence system.
Under an agreement from the early 1980's, Kwajalein landowners received about 11 point 2 million a year in rental payments.
They want a trust fund established that would yield annual payments of 100 million dollars.
The US has said it is interested in using the site until 2043, but only at the present rental.
