As seven new NATO members signed the protocols on Wednesday that will expand the transatlantic alliance into Eastern Europe, European leaders called for an increased focus on defense spending and projects.

Worried that both the EU and NATO will be sidelined in future conflicts as they have in the war in Iraq, EU Commission President Romano Prodi said Europe had to stop "relying on the United States for security."

"We know the world will not take heed of us until we put an end to our divisions. Until we stop relying on the European Union for economic growth and the United States for security," Prodi said in a speech to the European parliament on Wednesday.

The NATO accession of Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- six of which are slated to join the EU in 2004 -- has sparked renewed discussion in Europe on an old topic: common security and foreign policy.

In the past, talk of security policy has not been followed by the increase in defense budgets and inter-EU military cooperation needed to back such a plan. Different EU governments continue to work on similar projects, rather than pool their resources, say critics. When multinational ventures are undertaken -- as in the plan to purchase much-needed Airbus military transport planes or assemble a European army -- they are often delayed for months.

More "European arrows" in NATO

In order to get access to absent military resources, the EU signed a cooperation agreement with NATO in December. Now, European leaders are calling for more European contributions to NATO's military arsenal.

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who has said in recent days that Germany should increase its defense budget, called for a "strengthening of NATO through what you could call European arrows," after a recent meeting with his colleagues.

Those new arrows are not likely to come from the new members, who have comparatively small defense budgets. The new members do bring additional voices to a body that was recently wracked by internal disputes over NATO defense equipment and planes deployed in Turkey.

The former communist countries, all of whom support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, got caught in a recent transatlantic dispute between the pro and anti-war camps in America and Europe. President Jacques Chirac said their pro-war stances could harm their chances of joining the European Union.

NATO in postwar Iraq?

There was no talk of dispute or crisis at the signing ceremony in Brussels on Wednesday. The three-hour affair was attended by outgoing NATO Secretary General George Robertson and the foreign ministers of the seven countries, some of whom alluded to NATO's possible role in the aftermath of the Iraq war.

"NATO, together with other international organizations, mainly the United Nations and the EU, has the potential to play a role in overcoming the difficulties in the aftermath of the war," said Romania's Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana.

Lord Robertson denied a report in the The Wall Street Journal that NATO could provide troops to a stabilization or peacekeeping force in Iraq following Saddam Hussein's removal from power. According to the report, European NATO members were pressuring France to support a key role for NATO in post-war Iraq. France has emphasized it wants to see the U.N. in that role.

"If somebody comes along and asks the alliance to do something in the aftermath of that conflict, then the NATO council will consider," Robertson told reporters. "Nobody has approached us as yet."