THE EU: The European Union's foreign policy co-ordinator, Mr Javier Solana, yesterday called on the United States and Europe to tone down their war of words over Iraq and avoid a damaging rift.
His plea came as another senior Brussels official, the External Relations Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, said that a failure by key member-states to present a common front on Iraq would be a serious blow to EU attempts to forge a common foreign policy.
Commenting on the diplomatic scuffle between Washington and France and Germany over Iraq, Mr Solana said that a transatlantic rift would be a "very negative thing".
"I think we have to cool off a little bit, on statements etc, to look at the situation with rational eyes", he said after a meeting of EU officials with the Russian foreign minister, Mr Igor Ivanov.
"We are allies of the United States. We have a very profound friendship with the United States and we have to do the utmost to maintain this relationship," Mr Solana said.
Germany and France have angrily rejected criticism from the US defence secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, that they represent "old Europe" and are isolated in their efforts to prevent a war in Iraq.
Mr Patten, speaking to the French newspaper Le Monde, said that the four EU members now on the UN Security Council would damage European unity if they failed to speak with one voice in the face of Washington's pro-war stance.
"We will continue to plead for a common position on Iraq. Agreement between the European members of the Security Council would have a lot of weight in discussions," he said. "If France, Britain, Germany and Spain cannot reach an agreement, it will mark a major failure of our efforts to construct a common EU foreign policy." - (Reuters)