Fight terror or wither, Rumsfeld tells Nato

Nato must adapt to the need to fight terrorists or rogue states or accept that it is irrelevant, the American defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, told his European allies yesterday.

The US remained fully committed to the Atlantic alliance, he said, but it had to modernise rapidly and improve on a military capacity built for fighting the Soviet Union.

"If Nato does not have a force that is quick and agile, which can deploy in days or weeks instead of months or years, then it will not have much to offer the world in the 21st century," he told Nato ministers' meeting in Warsaw.

The US plan, trailed yesterday, is for a new rapid response force which can be deployed anywhere in the world, not just in Nato's normal European theatre of operations.

If authorised when George Bush, Tony Blair and other Nato leaders meet in Prague in November, it will have rotating brigades of 5,000 soldiers drawn from US and European forces, armed with hi-tech weapons and protected against chemical and biological attack.

Opening the two-day meeting, the Nato secretary general, Lord Robertson, urged the alliance to refocus its military capabilities so it could "root out and destroy" terrorist threats.

"Nato played a key role in defeating the threats of the cold war," he said. "We must now transform our alliance so that it can play an equally pivotal part in the war against terrorism and the dangers of weapons of mass destruction."

Nato is unlikely to play a direct role if the US attacks Iraq, because Washington objects to "war by committee" and because alliance attitudes range from Germany's anti-war stance to Britain's loyalty to the US.

Its European members are painfully aware of the need to close the gap with the US, which spends 85% more on defence than the other 18 members combined. Several which offered to send troops to Afghanistan had to ask Washington to lend aircraft to get them there.

Lord Robertson is urging them to overcome budgetary constraints to equip themselves with advanced weapons and heavy transport aircraft.

Belgium and Luxembourg fear that a new strike force within Nato will conflict with the European rapid reaction force now under construction, which is intended for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, not fighting wars. France is also lukewarm.

· President George Bush yesterday reduced America's state of alert against terrorist attack by one step, from the second- to the third-highest category.