EU: EU defence ministers have asked for a risk assessment of a proposed peacekeeping mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo before agreeing to send any troops.
There was also no agreement on which European state would lead the potentially dangerous mission to safeguard Congo's elections, which was first requested by the UN in January.
At a meeting yesterday in Austria, defence ministers asked EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to prepare a report on the potential risks and nature of the mission, which is intended to back up an existing 17,000-strong UN force already in the Congo.
"Today we wanted to know how member states viewed the mission," said Günther Platter, Austrian defence minister, after the informal talks in Innsbruck. "There was a positive reaction, but a lot of questions were asked."
France and Germany have already pledged troops, but other EU states are reticent.
Sweden, Poland, Austria, Spain and Portugal have been cited as possible contributors to the mission. Ireland has said in principle it would like to participate, but it will wait to consider the report from Mr Solana.
Mr Solana said he hoped to visit Congolese president Joseph Kabila as soon as possible to discuss how long troops would be needed, where they would be deployed, their relationship with UN troops and how many could be put on standby outside Congo.
He said the EU envisaged sending only a few hundred troops, with about 1,000 on reserve outside the state, most of them in Europe on standby.
Germany is tipped as the EU nation most likely to lead the mission, after both France and Britain declined. Berlin, however, remains cautious.
"I made it clear that first we need to firm up the number of troops," said German defence minister Franz-Josep Jung. "When we have firmed that up, then we can discuss this issue [ of force leadership] and I think we'll find a solution."
Mr Solana was asked why two months had elapsed with no clear reply from the EU to the UN request. In response he denied that the episode had thrown the spotlight on the EU's slowness to act and insisted that Europeans backed the bloc's goal of being a security player.
Congo is recovering from the 1998-2002 war which cost four million lives and has left much of the country lawless. Despite the presence of 17,000 UN peacekeepers, sporadic fighting continues. The UN has asked the EU to send a military mission to help safeguard its first free elections since independence from Belgium in 1961.