Austria hints at ending neutrality

Mr Schuessel says times have changed for Austria

Austria's Chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel, has sent out strong signals that he is ready to drop the country's traditional neutrality and bring it into Nato.

The old cliches - Lippizaner, Mozart chocolate balls and neutrality - are no longer applicable in the complex reality of the 21st Century

Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel

Mr Schuessel said that he expected a "large circle" of countries would be invited to join at next year's Nato summit meeting in Prague and said that Austria was considering membership "carefully".

Mr Schuessel has long been an advocate of ditching Austria's neutral status - a legacy of its Cold War position sandwiched between East and West.

But neutrality is considered an essential part of Austrian national identity and moves to drop it meet strong opposition.

National identity

"In some [media opinion] neutrality is portrayed as Austria's raison d'etre... as our identity itself. But our identity amounts to much more and we must be able to express that," Mr Schuessel told Profil magazine on his return from a meeting with US President George W Bush where he said Austria's strategic position was raised.

Mr Schuessel discussed Austria's position with President Bush

Mr Schuessel stirred controversy on Austria's national day last month, saying, "the old cliches - Lippizaner, Mozart chocolate balls and neutrality - are no longer applicable in the complex reality of the 21st Century".

He said that Austria's entry into the European Union in 1995 had been "a decisive step which superseded neutrality".

The process of joining Nato was likely to be shorter than the 20-year wrangling over EU membership, but there should be no pressure, he added.

Public suspicion

The future role of Nato, Mr Schuessel predicted, would be decisive in considering membership.

"[The alliance] will become a kind of security association - rather like the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe," he said.

Closer ties with Nato were high on the agenda when Mr Schuessel's conservative People's Party entered government with the far-right Freedom Party.

But public opinion in Austria is still suspicious of Nato and there was strong opposition to the bombing campaign in Kosovo.

Neutrality was enshrined in Austria's constitution at the end of World War II by the allied occupying forces.

With the fall of the Soviet Union its importance as a buffer zone decreased but, on a recent trip to Vienna, President Vladimir Putin made it clear he would oppose any Nato enlargement to include Austria.