Bush calls for new Nato capabilities

Bush: The Prague summit will be a historic moment

US President George W Bush has said all Nato countries - both established members and newcomers - must contribute military strength to the alliance.

Never has our need for collective defence been more urgent

George W Bush

Outlining his vision of Nato's future to a student audience in Prague, Mr Bush said that the organisation had to develop new capabilities - and that would mean all countries had to make their defence spending more effective.

He said that Nato's options when forces were needed quickly in Afghanistan had been "limited" and said a highly equipped special response force constantly ready for deployment should be set up.

Mr Bush was speaking a day before Nato members meet in the Czech capital to formally invite seven former communist countries to join.

Priorities

"Every member must make a military contribution to this alliance," Mr Bush said.

"Never has our need for collective defence been more urgent," he said.

He highlighted several capabilities which Nato particularly required, including:

• Being better able to fight side-by-side
  
• Being more mobile and able to be more swiftly deployed
  
• Having more special operations forces and better precision strike capabilities
  
• Having a more modern command structure

He said meeting these priorities would require more defence spending from some countries and more effective defence spending from all members.

Mr Bush said efforts to set up a special response force consisting of highly equipped air, ground and sea forces should begin at the Prague summit.

The unit would comprise 21,000 combat-ready able to be deployed quickly to trouble spots around the world and play a key role in the US-led war on international terrorism. It could be operational by 2004.

Russian concerns

Mr Bush hailed the enlargement of Nato as a "decisive" and "historic" moment and said it was a "bold decision to guarantee the freedom of millions of people".

Prospective new members

Bulgaria

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

He said the recent history of the new members would boost the alliance, saying "those with fresh memories of tyranny know the value of freedom".

And he added that enlargement should not stop there.

"Every European democracy that seeks Nato membership and is ready to share in Nato's responsibilities should be welcome in our alliance," he said.

But he aimed to soothe Russian fears about its neighbours becoming members.

"A larger Nato is good for Russia as well... [Russia] too will gain from the stability and security of nations to its west," he said.

And he stressed the United States' commitment to Nato - which some have doubted under the Bush administration - describing the alliance as his country's "most important global relationship".

Terrorism focus

Earlier, following talks with Czech President Vaclav Havel, Mr Bush urged Nato to move its policies away from the Cold War to fighting "true threats" and "global terrorists" in particular.

Security in the Czech capital is tight

"The enemy is not Russia - the enemy is global terrorists who hate freedom, and together we can work to defeat that enemy in the name of freedom," Mr Bush said.

But speaking specifically of possible military action against Iraq, he added that US would only consult its allies and it would be up to each nation to decide if it wanted to participate.

Some Nato members - notably Germany - are opposed to a war on Iraq.

Mr Bush repeated his stance that Saddam Hussein was a threat to world peace and said it was "the collective will of the world" that he should be disarmed.

Transformation

The Prague summit will focus on plans to expand and transform the organisation.

New countries will be invited to join the existing 19 members

The expected invitations for new members to join in 2004 are set to be the single largest inclusion of new countries to Nato since it was established in 1949 .

A huge security operation is under way in Prague to protect the 40 heads of state attending the summit.

Nearly 15,000 police, soldiers and special forces are on the alert for threats ranging from terrorist attacks to anarchist demonstrations.