The Secretary General of NATO, George Robertson, has told European members of the alliance that they must do more in future to protect the security of the continent.

He said Europe must play a stronger part in its own defence and rely less on the Americans.

Lord Robertson told a security conference in Munich, in Germany, that the NATO intervention in Kosovo had demonstrated the need for highly mobile forces, able to sustain themselves beyond NATO's territory.

The British Defence Secretary, Geoffrey Hoon, said Kosovo had also shown that a properly organised management team was needed to take over the running of a territory once the military phase was completed.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service