EU/Brussels: Seven European countries have agreed to form two new EU "battle groups" capable of being deployed to crisis regions within days, bringing the total of such planned groups to 13.
However, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea says the Government has not yet decided if Ireland will be able to participate in the rapid reaction forces.
Sweden and Finland, both neutral states, will form a battle group with Estonia and Norway, which is not in the EU. Germany, France and Spain said they would also form a joint force of 1,500 troops. Mr O'Dea said yesterday that the Government would decide at the end of the summer if Ireland would take part in one of the battle groups.
"Our position is that we are well disposed towards the idea of the battle groups," he said. "We have a number of difficulties, which I have an interdepartmental committee working on at the moment, to see if we can find a way of resolving those."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said Irish participation in the battle groups would be in keeping with the State's commitment to strengthening the role of the United Nations.
"It's very important to emphasise that the UN secretary general Kofi Annan has strongly urged the European Union to have these standing reaction forces available for humanitarian purposes," Mr Ahern said.
Despite their name, EU battle groups are not designed for offensive operations but will be sent to stabilise crisis regions for up to three months until longer-term peacekeepers arrive.
France and Britain have each already formed EU standby units composed entirely of their own soldiers and Italy has promised to do the same next year. Austria, which is neutral, has agreed to form a battle group with Germany and the Czech Republic.
Poland is planning a joint force with Latvia and Lithuania.
Germany has agreed to take part in six battle groups, including one with France and the Netherlands and another with France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain.
Most EU defence ministers welcomed yesterday's commitments as an important step towards creating the new EU force that will enable the EU to deploy two battle groups at the same time by 2008.
However, Mr O'Dea played down the significance of yesterday's decisions, insisting that much work remained to be done.
"No multinational battle groups have been established yet because there are a lot of things to be worked out, such as where they would train, to what extent they would have to train together. . .
"There's a wealth of detail to be worked out yet," he said.