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PARIS, Nov 10 (AFP) -
France on Wednesday hit out at the United States describing its attitude in Kosovo as "cavalier" and criticizing in a report NATO's outgoing supreme commander, the American Wesley Clark.
"Part of the military operations (in Kosovo) were conducted by the United States outside the strict scope of NATO procedures," said the defense ministry report aimed at drawing lessons from the Kosovo crisis.
It said Clark, replaced last month as supreme commander of allied forces in Europe by US Air Force General Joseph Ralston, "was not only accountable to the Atlantic council (during the Kosovo crisis) but also to state authorities in his country at the highest level."
"The complexity of the decision-making network was further exacerbated by the dual chains of command, with high-level military officers in charge of NATO operations also being responsible for US troops who were not under NATO command," the report said.
The 55-page document also confirmed Paris' displeasure with Washington during NATO's bombing campaign against Serbia earlier this year. It said the US at the time conducted parallel raids with its B-52 bombers and cruise missiles without informing its western allies.
"It appears that the country that has cruise missiles can decide when to use them but those that don't are excluded from this decision making process," the report said.
Members of the alliance at the time of the Kosovo crisis had to reach consensus on the targets to hit in the province and elsewhere in Serbia, but the United States often violated this rule, going it alone.
That prompted criticism at the time by President Jacques Chirac, who denounced the destruction by US jets of a building housing the state-controlled Serb television and the bombing of military targets in Montenegro.
The defense ministry report comes at a time when France is insisting that the European Union must develop its own military capacity to avoid relying on US military might.
It also comes amid criticism by leading French politicians of what is described as the "hyper-power" status and "unilateralist" stance of the United States.
Washington responded Tuesday to the criticism by saying it believes Paris was taking to extremes the principle of "vive la difference."
"The desire on the part of some -- occasionally some in France -- to differentiate themselves from the United States by disagreeing when they don't really disagree is a matter of frustration," State Department spokesman James Rubin said.
"And often we feel that being different for difference's sake sometimes drives some in Europe," he added.