General Henri Bentegeat, head of the influential military body which advises EU foreign and security chief Javier Solana, said the 27-nation European Union was determined to tackle flashpoints in all parts of the world. He made the remarks in an interview with the German news agency dpa ahead of a meeting of EU defense ministers in the German city of Wiesbaden on March 1-2.

With 16 civilian and military missions currently deployed across the world - including in Bosnia, Darfur, the Palestinian territories and Iraq - "slowly but surely, the EU is preparing, organizing itself to play a global role," said Bentegeat.

However, EU governments want to do this in partnership with the UN, the 26-nation NATO military alliance and the African Union.

Bentegeat, who was previously French Army chief of staff, said all EU operations required the "legitimacy" of a UN mandate. Having worked closely with the UN during last year's military operations supervising national elections in Congo, the bloc is determined to improve coordination with the global body, he said.

NATO vs. EU?

Close cooperation with NATO is also a priority, said Bentegeat. Referring to rivalries between the two organizations, the general said both the EU and NATO had to go beyond "unease and frustrations" and focus on the resolution of problems in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

Fears that a powerful NATO would "suffocate" Europe's nascent defense identity or that Europe's security ambitions were a threat to the alliance were unfounded, said Bentegeat.

In reality, the EU's military capability was modest and not comparable to NATO, he said. Also, the EU's military role was now well-established enough to withstand any so-called "risk of suffocation" from NATO.

While formal EU-NATO contacts were hampered by a dispute between Turkey (in NATO but not in the EU) and Cyprus (in the EU but not in NATO), the two organizations were engaged in a "real dialogue at all levels," including staff-to-staff contacts, said Bentegeat.

Regular discussions between EU security chief Solana and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer were also a guarantee of a strong partnership between the two organizations, he said.

"This is important for the Balkans. Working in Kosovo will require practical agreements between NATO forces and a future EU civilian mission," he said.

NATO currently has an estimated 16,000 troops in Kosovo as part of the UN administration of the breakaway Serbian province. The EU has said it will help police reform and rule of law projects in the territory once there is a UN resolution confirming Kosovo's future status.

African Union

Bentegeat said the EU was determined to help the African Union's efforts to tackle a growing number of crises on the continent.

"African governments want to do this themselves. But they need our help ... the EU cannot ignore the impact of these crises on the (economic) development of Africa," he said.

In addition to last year's military mission in Congo and logistical help for African Union forces in Darfur, Bentegeat said the EU wanted to help an ambitious AU program to create a standby force for peacekeeping missions.

What made the EU's role as world security actor "unique" was its capacity to combine military and civilian operations when tackling crises, he said.

"The EU's main advantage compared to other international organizations is its capacity to simultaneously mobilize a range of components - military, financial, law and order and administrative," said the general.

This capacity to act in parallel on the military and civilian fronts gave the EU a special role and "force" on the global stage, he said.

"Lessons from international military operations show that military solutions alone cannot solve modern crises," said Bentegeat. This was currently the case in Afghanistan where the US and NATO were demanding a better coordination of military action and aid, he said.

The EU also realized the importance of contributing to the long-term reform of the security sector in crisis zones, said Bentegeat. The end of the EU military operation in Congo for instance had been followed up by efforts to reform the Congolese police force and army.

Such actions would be boosted by the setting up of rapid civilian crisis response teams allowing the swift dispatch of EU police officers, magistrates and administrators to crisis zones, he said.

EU battlegroups

Bentegeat said such teams would be in addition to EU battlegroups aimed at taking on crisis-management tasks worldwide.

Two battlegroups, including an estimated 1,500 soldiers, each are currently operational. The general said Germany, Portugal and Slovenia had suggested that the ground forces should be backed up by marine and air forces to improve the "deployability and sustainability" of EU military operations.

"We realized that in real life, one cannot just act with ground troops - we need air and navy forces to transport them, protect them, and provide logistical support," said Bentegeat.