Rumsfeld on missile mission to Nato

Rumsfeld has to convince Nato that missile defence is still a top priority

By defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus

Nato ministers are gathering in Brussels on Thursday for a meeting that looks set to be dominated by two main issues - the Balkans and missile defence.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be briefing his Nato colleagues on America's latest missile defence proposals.

And there will be a review of Nato troop levels in the Balkans, with small cuts likely to be announced in force numbers in Bosnia.

US wants protection from "rogue states"

Ahead of the meeting, Mr Rumsfeld was speaking in characteristically blunt terms about President Bush's missile defence plans.

Testing would continue he insisted.

He also openly acknowledged that the proposed US scheme would "bump up" - as he euphemistically put it - against the Anti-Ballistic Missile - or ABM - Treaty.

Political shift

According to his own domestic critics, Mr Bush's missile defence proposals would not just bump up against the treaty regime - they would drive a coach and horses through it.

But for all the talk about consultation with his allies, Mr Rumsfeld's real job is to convince them that - despite the change of control in the US Senate - missile defence is still one of the administration's top priorities.

Prior to the political shift on Capitol Hill, it really did look as though the Bush team would be able to force the pace on missile defence, restrained only by the level of technical progress achieved.

Now though the picture is much less clear.

Scepticism

President Bush will face strong constraints from opposition Democrats and this could encourage the existing scepticism within Nato's ranks.

The Bush team realises that it needs to manage its European allies' concerns.

That is in part why it has agreed to smaller troop cuts in Bosnia than it had wanted.

There will be a certain amount of self-congratulation at today's meeting about the hand-over of the most sensitive sector of the ground-safety zone around Kosovo to Yugoslav control.

But there will also be continuing worries about events in Macedonia which Nato can only influence from afar and which again threatens to spiral out of control.