US Threatens to Boycott Belgium Over War Crimes Law

The bitter dispute between the US and Europe over Iraq burst into the open again yesterday when the US threatened Belgium with a boycott and Germany and France registered protests at the UN about Washington's continued opposition to the international criminal court.

The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, warned Belgium at a Nato meeting to drop its controversial war crimes law or face a boycott of Nato's Brussels HQ.

Belgium, a founder member of Nato, has a law giving it jurisdiction to try war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity wherever they are committed. The government has already been trying to water it down.

Mr Rumsfeld condemned "divisive politicised lawsuits" such as the one threatening General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces in Iraq.

The US is threatening to suspend its financial support for a new €400m (£280m) building for Nato.

"It would obviously not be easy for US officials ... to come to Belgium," Mr Rumsfeld said. "It would not make much sense to build a new headquarters if they can't come here for meetings."

He refused to say whether the US wanted to see the headquarters moved from Brussels, but added: "It's perfectly possible to meet elsewhere."

Belgium's defence minister, André Flahaut, insisted that American officials could continue to enter the country without fear of harassment.

Belgium opposed the war in Iraq, along with France and Germany, and then joined them in launching a separate EU defence initiative in April.

Mr Rumsfeld's remarks overshadowed a meeting designed to introduce an overhaul of Nato's military command to allow it to fight terrorism and other threats far from Europe.

The legacy of the Iraq war also surfaced in New York during a vote at the UN security council on a resolution extending for a year a US exemption from the international criminal court, which began work last year.

Although it has the backing of 90 countries, including Britain and the rest of Europe, the court is shunned by the US because of fears that its servicemen could face trial.

France and the other 14 council members voted unanimously last year to allow the US exemption from the court. But yesterday France, and Germany - which was not on the council last year - sent a protest to Washington by abstaining in the vote. Syria also abstained.

A security council source said that France was emboldened by having Germany for company this year, but that France also "wanted to send a protest to Washington".

Britain, though a strong supporter of the court, voted to continue the US exemption.

The British government regards the exemption as the least bad option, because it will avoid a repeat of the standoff last year in which the US threatened to block peace keeping operations unless it was given an opt-out.

The British government says that it recognises American concerns, but adds that it does not regard the prospect of US soldiers being tried by the court as a realistic one.

Human rights groups said Washington had used a mixture of the carrot and the stick to force smaller countries to support it this year, and the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, expressed his disapproval of the US opt-out.

At the Nato meeting, defence ministers approved a new post to oversee an ambitious agenda for military modernisation. Norfolk, Virginia, will be the base for a "transformation headquarters".

"This is a new Nato, a Nato transformed," said Lord Robertson, its British secretary general.

Ministers also said the first elements of a new "reaction force" would be available in October for rapid deployment anywhere; and Spain announced that it would help Poland run a peacekeeping zone in Iraq, contributing 1,100 soldiers to a multinational force.

Nato has so far struggled to adapt to the changes brought about by September 11.

However, it agreed to take over peacekeeping in Afghanistan, and now there is discussion of a possible role policing an Israeli-Palestinian deal.

"Afghanistan seemed impossible a year ago," said one senior official. "The inconceivable has become the imaginable. So now no one is ruling out the Middle East."