Turkey Relents to Pave Way for Eu Force

The European Union is to review how soon its forces could take over peacekeeping duties in Bosnia and Macedonia following a landmark defence deal with Turkey at the Copenhagen summit.

Javier Solana, the union's foreign policy chief, will report back to governments in February to see if the fledgling 60,000-strong rapid reaction force (RRF) can be deployed in the Balkans, where an overstretched US is winding down its military presence.

The EU had hoped to take over Nato's mission in Macedonia this month, but was unable to do so because problems with Nato had not been resolved. That now seems certain to go ahead next year.

Until last Friday Turkey, a Nato member, had effectively vetoed the EU force by denying it access to vital alliance assets unless it received guarantees that the RRF would never be used against its interests.

In the end it won a promise from the EU that Cyprus, now due to join the club in May 2004, would not take part in RRF operations.

The agreement is a huge boost to one of the EU's biggest ambitions, to add some military muscle to its economic weight and speed up slow-moving efforts to play a bigger role on the world stage.

European troops already make up the majority of the 17,000-strong S-For peacekeeping force in Bosnia, but it is still under Nato command. An EU police mission takes over from the UN in Bosnia on January 1.

Tony Blair and the French president, Jacques Chirac, a pioneer of European defence efforts, praised the summit deal as a breakthrough after "very difficult" negotiations.