Sweden and Belgium pledged yesterday to adopt a pragmatic approach when championing the EU's rapid reaction force, a subject of heated diplomatic debate at the EU summit in Nice.
The defence ministers of the two states - which hold the rotating EU presidency in the first and second halves of next year - promised to co-operate in advancing the cause of the EU defence force.
"The two of us in a joint effort . . . will try to find a formula all can accept. We will work in a pragmatic way," the Swedish Defence Minister, Mr Bjorn von Sydow, told a news conference.
"It is important to have a good start. We will co-operate with Sweden in a pragmatic way," said Mr Andre Flahaut, his Belgian counterpart.
The EU decided in December 1999 to set up a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force, which was intended to be operational in some form by the end of 2001. Putting the proposal into practice has not been easy.
President Chirac sparked a row in Nice by calling for European defence planning to be independent of NATO's military headquarters.
Britain - which earlier insisted that it would never sign up to any EU plan that could undermine NATO - voiced concern at Mr Chirac's comments and insisted certain paragraphs be excised from the final statement on the force.
EU officials said the EU leaders omitted several paragraphs which summarised the EU's crisis management role and relations with NATO.
The EU insists its defence initiative is fully compatible with NATO and is intended to carry out lower-tier peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.
However, unresolved issues remain over the degree of co-ordination or autonomy between the EU force and NATO, and the role granted to six European NATO members who are not in the EU.
Diplomats say the long-term implications of the EU force will not become clear until its relationship with NATO is settled.