European Union leaders have agreed to set up a military planning cell independent of NATO.However, the plan falls deliberately short of French and German ambitions because of Washington's deep suspicions.
Seeking to close a chapter of trans-Atlantic acrimony over the Iraq war, leaders of the EU's 25 current and future members also declared their commitment to a "constructive, balanced and forward-looking partnership" with the United States.
Many in Washington view the EU's project to build an autonomous rapid reaction force as a French-inspired drive to subvert NATO and curb U.S. influence.
The United States was particularly irked by plans - championed by Paris and Berlin at the height of strains over Iraq - to establish a separate military headquarters, branding them "the most serious threat" to NATO's future.
The plan now is for the EU and NATO to put liaison teams at each other's military headquarters, and the EU's operational cell - to be set up as early as possible in 2004 - will be both small and only used as a last resort.
"The decisions taken are in keeping with the interests of both Europe and NATO," French President Jacques Chirac told a news conference at the EU summit. "We have put the controversy behind us."
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington, "We have full confidence that our European allies will carry out these arrangements and can develop this initiative in a way that does protect NATO's role as the premier European security organization."