Belarus says comments made by President Alexander Lukashenko about the country's missile program were distorted in an article in The Wall Street Journal.

In a statement released Monday, the Belarusian government said the Friday article "gave an absolutely false interpretation of the president's statements relating to U.S. plans to deploy an anti-missile system in Europe, and on Russia's countermeasures," RIA Novosti reported.

Government officials said the newspaper's article gave the impression Belarus was seeking new short-range Iskander missiles in order to target proposed U.S. missile defense shield installations to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic -- something Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said he might do with Iskander missiles sited in Kaliningrad.

But that's not Belarus's intention in obtaining its own Iskanders, the statement said.

"What was being discussed was exclusively to do with the general rearming of the Belarusian army, and changing outdated missile systems for new, more modern ones, possibly including Iskander missile systems. Clearly, re-equipping one's own army is an entirely normal and natural process for any state," RIA Novosti reported the statement as saying.