EU spies reaction force breakthrough

The European Union appeared to have moved closer yesterday to breaking a deadlock which has hobbled its military rapid reaction force from birth.

Diplomats said that two eleventh-hour solutions, both of which would exclude Cyprus from the bloc's future crisis management operations, were on the anvil as officials headed to Copenhagen for an EU summit showdown with Turkey.

Diplomats said that under the first solution, access to Nato assets would be limited to those countries which have a bilateral security arrangement with the alliance or belong to its 27-nation Partnership for Peace (PfP).

"The practical effect is that this would exclude Cyprus and Malta," said one diplomat, who asked not to be named.

"We've got two irons in the fire and we hope at least one of them will deliver by the end of Copenhagen," said one.

The EU's 60,000-strong force is due to become fully operational in 2003. But the guarantee of access to Nato planning, intelligence and logistics it needs has been blocked because of mistrust between Aegean rivals Greece and Turkey.

Nato member Turkey fears a possible future deployment on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which is among the 10 countries set to wrap up EU accession talks at the Copenhagen summit.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded the north in 1974 in response to a pro-Greek coup in Nicosia engineered by Greece's then-ruling military junta.

Diplomats said that under the first solution, access to Nato assets would be limited to those countries which have a bilateral security arrangement with the alliance or belong to its 27-nation Partnership for Peace (PfP).

"The practical effect is that this would exclude Cyprus and Malta," said one diplomat, who asked not to be named.

The other solution would emerge naturally if Turkish and Greek Cypriots, meeting on the sidelines of the summit, were to sign a framework accord for a political settlement on the island so that it can join the EU in 2004 as a reunited single entity.

Under a peace plan sent by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the island's leaders, Cyprus would become demilitarised.

"It follows that if the status of Cyprus is going to be one of demilitarisation, it is not going to be partaking in EU military operations," an EU official said.

Diplomats said both possible solutions should meet Turkish concerns, but Greece could have misgivings.

"Here at Nato we need to hear from the EU that all its members, including Greece, are happy with the PfP solution as the first step to unravel all this," an alliance diplomat said.

The two-year impasse was almost cleared at the end of October with an agreement that the EU's force would not be used against a Nato ally - meaning Turkey - and that, reciprocally, Nato would never take action against an EU member state.

That left just Turkey's concern that Cyprus would not be implicated in cooperation with Nato for possible crisis management operations led by the EU.

Diplomats said the issue could have been resolved had it not become linked to Turkey's demand for a solid date for talks on accession to the EU and the bloc's counter-demand for Ankara to push Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to sign up to the UN's proposals for a Cyprus settlement.

"There has been an attempt to put together a package with three legs: European defence, a comprehensive settlement of Cyprus and a deal on Turkey's accession to the EU," one diplomat said.

"Some are now pushing for the defence leg to be detached and dealt with on its own because it's the easiest to resolve."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has led efforts to secure the so-called "Berlin Plus" deal between the 15-nation bloc and Nato. His failure to achieve this so far has thwarted EU ambitions to make a peacekeeping debut in Macedonia.