Divided Eu May Hold Emergency Summit

EU leaders may hold an emergency summit to discuss the Iraq crisis after this week's public call by eight European countries to back the US in the escalating confrontation with Saddam Hussein.

Costas Simitis, prime minister of Greece, the current holder of the union's rotating presidency, said yesterday that a summit could be held "to take crucial decisions on developments," though none has yet been arranged.

Mr Simitis is facing deep embarrassment over the pro-American letter published on Thursday by Tony Blair, four other leaders of EU member states and three of the eastern European countries joining the club next year.

Germany and France, leading opposition to war, were deliberately excluded by the so-called "gang of eight". No other current EU leader was asked to sign except the prime minister of the Netherlands, who declined.

Denmark, whose prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was one of the signatories, announced yesterday that it would send 70 troops and a submarine to take part in a US-led campaign.

The joint letter was criticised across the continent for undermining solidarity in advance of what many believe are the crucial final weeks before war.

"Europe tears itself apart over Iraq," said the Belgian daily Le Soir. French newspapers attacked President George Bush's "vassals and acolytes" who helped Washington divide Europeans just when Paris and Berlin were trying to rally them to stand up to pressure from the US.

The initiative was launched without consultation with Greece, or with Javier Solana and Chris Patten, who handle foreign policy for the European commission and council of ministers respectively.

Strikingly, news of the possible summit, likely to be held in mid-February, came from Berlin, where a government spokesman said Chancellor Gerhard Schröder would "naturally take part".

Greece, which assumed the EU presidency on January 1 knowing that its turn would be dominated by Iraq, has quickly found out just how tough it is.

George Papandreou, the foreign minister, had been planning to visit Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to seek regional support for a peaceful solution this weekend. But officials in Athens said they could no longer confirm the Egyptian and Saudi legs of the trip.

Mr Patten, meanwhile, leaves on Monday for a trip to Iran, Turkey and Lebanon to discuss Iraq and contingency plans for helping deal with the humanitarian crisis that will inevitably follow a war.

"It is very important that at this testing moment for the international community, we do not allow a 'clash of civilisations' to develop," he said yesterday. "Commitment to peace, the fight against terrorism and the quest for stability should be values shared between the great cultures of Europe and the Middle East."

Romania, joining Nato next year and expected to be in the EU in 2007, also pledged support for Washington. Bulgaria announced it was forming a 150-member military unit, specialising in defence against nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, for possible deployment to Iraq.