The European Union is considering setting up an international reaction force able to deal with disasters such as the Asian tsunamis.
Such a crisis management corps could be made up of about 5,000 experts identified beforehand by national governments, trained together and placed under central co-ordination in an emergency, the EU's external relations Commissioner said.
"I would like to see the EU rapidly developing the capacity to deploy experts, with rapid reaction teams
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external relations Commissioner
in disaster relief, fire-fighting, emergency reconstruction, on standby," Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the Financial Times in an interview.
"We should do it as early as possible," she said, adding it "would be great" if the corps could be ready by 2007.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said there was a need for a humanitarian equivalent of the United Nations 'blue helmets' peacekeeping forces.
This European or international civil protection force, dubbed 'red helmets', would group and coordinate existing resources, he told Europe 1 radio.
"Firemen, technicians, doctors, vaccinators, mobile hospitals, in short all the means you need to deal with a humanitarian emergency, and these means would be used to working together, these people would be trained together," he said.
"It would consist of national or regional units ... which in case of emergency and depending on the nature of catastrophes, would set off together in Europe or outside of Europe."
Ferrero-Waldner also said the European Commission was likely to increase its aid for the victims of the tsunami disaster by tens of millions of euros in the coming days.
"Obviously, money is important," Ferrero-Waldner said.
"But it is equally vital that we have systems in place to make sure that we have aid for people who need it first and the effective co-ordination of efforts."
So far the EU's executive Commission has committed €23 million in aid to victims of the tsunami.