UK seeks to calm Nato row

The EU force is due to be up and running by 2003

The UK Government has moved to allay US fears that the new European rapid reaction force will weaken Nato.

The force has been at the centre of much controversy in recent weeks amid claims it is an EU army in everything but name and is a step on the road to a federal Europe.

US support for the initiative has been thrown into doubt after US Defence Secretary William Cohen warned Nato ministers the organisation could become a "relic of the past" if it is not properly linked to a proposed force.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have made it quite clear that we will not sign up for anything that in any way jeopardises Nato, our trans-Atlantic relationship."

Mr Cohen believes that too many questions about the force remained unanswered.

US concern

He said the US was concerned about proposals to set up planning structures separate to Nato.

"That would be quite self-defeating and would undermine the very aims and goals of Nato."

He added: "The one thing I do not want to see is a weakening of the transatlantic link."

It is understood that France, which is not a member of Nato, is pushing for the EU to have a significant planning capability of its own.

William Cohen: We need more answers

Mr Hoon reiterated on Wednesday that the UK Government had no plans to agree to a force that would undermine Nato.

He said: "It is right that if we do not get the arrangements that we are negotiating for, then we would have the very greatest difficulty in signing up for this.

"But I'm confident that we will get those arrangements."

'Weakening Nato'

Shadow defence secretary Iain Duncan Smith said government policy would weaken and eventually destroy Nato.

He said such a policy was "all about creating a European superstate, not about enhanced military capability".

Professor Michael Clarke, director of the centre for defence studies at Kings College London, suggested the government was losing control over the direction of the force.

"Ideas for beefing up the European military contribution have suddenly become ideas for a European army," he said.

"In a sense, the government has lost a certain amount of control over this initiative."