Minister ignores call for Euro army

British forces fight alongside other nationalities in Sierra Leone

The UK Defence Secretary is insisting that British troops will remain under national command, as a new report calls for the creation of a single European army.

Geoff Hoon is backing plans to set up a 60,000 strong European "rapid reaction force".

But the British members of that force would not fight under a European flag and they would remain under the control of a British prime minister, Mr Hoon said.

His assurances come as influential left-wing think tank the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) publishes a report urging politicians to start making preparations for a single European army.

Preparing public opinion

The IPPR's report says the goal of strengthening the defence capacity of the EU will be undermined unless politicians in the UK and across Europe prepare public opinion for "difficult choices ahead".

It says defence expenditure will have to increase across Europe if the EU is to have an independent peace-keeping capacity by 2015 and an "autonomous military capacity" by 2030.

The report - entitled European Defence: Meeting the Strategic Challenge - called for all EU members to commit up to 180,000 personnel to the proposed European Rapid Reaction Force.

And it said an EU council of defence ministers should be set up to make decisions about the new force.

Rapid reaction force

Mr Hoon is not expected to endorse the reports findings when he speaks at its launch on Tuesday.

But he will outline Britain's support for a pan-European rapid reaction force.

"This is part of our contribution to a multi-national force but the British government, the British Parliament and the British prime minister will decide how those forces are to be deployed," Mr Hoon told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He said the need for a pan-European force had been highlighted by the Kosovo crisis, where there had been serious delays in getting forces into the field.

"At the time of the crisis we could only get around 2% of the European force into the field quickly. We must improve that."

Multi-national units

But although British forces would be fighting in multi-national units, they would not be fighting under a European flag, Mr Hoon said.

"The reality is we will be organised in the way that the Nato multi-national force and the UN multi-national force is organised.

"It may well be the case that in small, specialist units there will be different nationalities working alongside each other. That is a very good thing.

"But as far as the larger units are concerned, they will remain in their different national groupings."

The author of the IPPR report, Dr Peter Truscott, said Europe's political leaders need to explain why more resources should be spent on defence when British French and German soldiers fight in multi-nationals units under an EU flag.