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LONDON, Oct 6 - European Union states, shamed by their dependence on U.S. military power in Kosovo, are considering setting themselves a goal of being able to deploy a corps-sized European force rapidly in a crisis, officials say.
That "headline goal" may be set at an EU summit in Helsinki in December, which is due to discuss how to take forward a year-old Franco-British initiative to give the 15-nation bloc a common security and defence policy complementary to NATO.
The target, likely to be spread over a decade, would require extensive modernisation of European armed forces, often still configured for static Cold War defence rather than mobile expeditionary warfare.
It will require coordinated investment in air and sea lift, intelligence, logistics and communications at a time when European defence budgets are frozen or shrinking.
No European political leader dares call for higher military outlays, so the emphasis is on spending existing resources more effectively.
EU missions could include evacuation, humanitarian relief and peace support as well as small crisis management operations, where the United States chose not to get involved.
A multinational European rapid reaction force would also serve under U.S.-led NATO command in bigger contingencies.
A corps normally comprises three to five divisions totalling about 100,000 soldiers, plus support staff and logistics.
Experts caution that it will take years to achieve even a limited autonomous EU military capability and some are sceptical that the Europeans will be willing to change their habits.
NEXT STEPS AFTER COLOGNE
EU leaders laid the foundations for a common defence policy at a June summit in Cologne and agreed to appoint outgoing NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana as their first foreign and security policy czar.
They declared the EU "must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises without prejudice to actions by NATO".
In an interview with the Washington Post before handing over his NATO post to British Defence Secretary Lord Robertson on Wednesday, Solana acknowledged that some U.S. policymakers were suspicious of the entire EU defence endeavour.
"I realise a lot of people in the United Sates are very sensitive about what we are trying to do," he said. "If they want to disengage from military responsibilities in Europe, they should go ahead, but they should not use the European initiative as an excuse. I hope we can find ways to calm everybody down."
As the next step towards giving the EU defence powers, Solana is expected to be put in charge of the Western European Union (WEU) defence grouping in November, diplomats said.
The aim is to fold the 50-year-old WEU into the Union by the end of 2000, retaining the mutual defence guarantee among its 10 signatories without forcing the EU's four neutral states to subscribe to such commitments.
The Helsinki summit is due to agree on further institutional changes to enable the EU, which previously had no security role, to plan and run small military operations.
These may include creating a new council of foreign and defence ministers, a permanent council of representatives of member states to manage the common foreign and security policy alongside Solana, a military committee of EU armed forces chiefs and a small permanent military staff.
There is no question of creating a single European army. Committing forces will remain a matter of national sovereignty and EU defence decisions will require unanimity.
FORCES MORE IMPORTANT THAN INSTITUTIONS
British and French officials stress what really counts is improving Europe's military capabilities, otherwise any common EU defence policy will be hollow.
NATO leaders approved a Defence Capabilities Initiative in April meant to raise European forces technologically to American standards.
The European defence initiative could harness a new source of political will to achieve improvements that have eluded the U.S.-dominated NATO defence planning process.
British and Italian leaders proposed in July setting goals for individual member states' defence performance similar to the "convergence criteria" used to prepare for the single European currency. EU foreign and defence ministers would assess each state's progress twice a year in a system of peer review.
But Germany, one of Europe's three big military powers, is resisting the idea.
Diplomats said this was partly because Berlin has already begun a national defence review, but mainly due to political sensitivity about being pressed by allies to spend more on defence, abolish conscription and embrace a wider military role.
Germany committed its armed forces to combat for the first time since World War Two this year in Kosovo, but most Germans still see their role as territorial defence rather than long-range policing operations.
The four neutral EU states -- Sweden, Finland, Austria and Ireland -- are also likely to resist a greater military role. Austria even closed its airspace to NATO during the Kosovo war.