Paris - France and Germany agreed yesterday to push for greater European military co-operation at next week's EU summit and warned Moscow it was misusing its armed forces in its campaign in Chechnya. They said the Helsinki summit should agree to set up an EU rapid reaction force with its own command able to send troops into combat independent of the US-led NATO alliance.
In separate statements at a regular six-monthly summit, the two foreign ministers expressed shock at the violence of Russia's drive against Islamic rebels in Chechnya and condemned Moscow's refusal to let outside observers into the region.