Britain and France stepped up their calls yesterday for a European rapid reaction force to tackle military crises without outside help.
In a joint statement after a summit in London, the British and French prime ministers, Mr Tony Blair and Mr Lionel Jospin, and the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, reiterated their desire to enhance Europe's military capability.
They urged EU leaders meeting on December 10th and 11th in Helsinki to take active steps to create a force with a strength of 50,000 to 60,000 troops, who would be capable of deployment within 60 days and for at least one year.
It would be self-sufficient with its own command, control and intelligence structures, combat support, logistics and appropriate naval and air backing.
"All these forces should have the full range of capabilities necessary to undertake the most demanding crisis management tasks," the statement said.
Smaller rapid response elements could be deployed in under 60 days, ahead of the main units, while the ability to sustain such a force for a year would also require "further deployable forces".
But the statement stressed: "NATO remains the foundation of our collective defence and will continue to have an important role in crisis management. We expect NATO and the EU to develop a close and confident relationship."
The idea of a European defence pillar is not new, but gained momentum over the past year after the Kosovo conflict highlighted how much European nations relied on US military might.
Britain and France urged the EU summit in Helsinki to set out the military and political structures to enable a European force to get off the ground.
The two countries also stressed a "common European need" for new transport aircraft. They signed a bilateral logistics agreement under which they would be able to use each other's air, sea and land transport assets to help deploy rapidly in a crisis.
The EU will consider at its summit next month plans to set up a 50,000-troop crisis force to be ready for action by 2003, the Finnish Prime Minister, Mr Paavo Lipponen, said yesterday.