The European Union said yesterday it would be ready to field a rapid reaction force by 2003, but it could be a sluggish military machine at the outset.
EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana said several capacity shortfalls had been met over the past year, but member-states must offer more resources for a force that could undertake humanitarian relief, peacekeeping and crisis management.
"The EU will be able to carry out the whole range of (these) tasks by 2003, albeit with possible restrictions in terms of scale and deployment time and perhaps a higher level of risk," Mr Solana told a meeting of EU defence ministers.
He was speaking at the start of a Capabilities Improvement Conference, which will consider work still required by EU states to deploy collectively up to 60,000 troops within 60 days and keep them in theatre for at least one year.
The project has been dogged by controversy since its conception in 1999, not least because of Turkey's opposition to giving the EU access to NATO planning, equipment and facilities.
But diplomats said the global fright over terrorism since the September 11th attacks has heightened concern about the EU's lack of capacity to back its policies with action and this could spur the plans for the force.
"We are in a new atmosphere because of September 11th," one said. "In the context of September 11th, I'm not sure we are as well equipped as we would like to be." Officials said 104 of 144 so-called capability targets - including multiple-launch rocket systems and electronic warfare battalions - have been met.
But of those remaining, half are crucial for risky missions such as separating warring parties and preventing conflicts.
A handful of demonstrators daubed themselves in blood-red paint as the conference got under way to protest against the construction of what they described as a European NATO.