October 20, 2003	Monday	Sha'aban 23, 1424

BRUSSELS-LONDON: EU leaders stuck by their controversial plans to develop defence and security policies on Saturday but scrambled to soothe US fears that they would damage Nato.

Stung by reports of a rift with Washington, Tony Blair insisted Britain would never choose between friendship with America and Europe. “We will remain strong with both,” he pledged at the two-day Brussels summit.

But Britain remains firmly opposed to Franco-German plans to set up an independent European military HQ, which it warns will duplicate Nato’s role. “We need strong European defence, but nothing whatever must put at risk our essential defence guarantees within Nato,” Mr Blair said.

The potential Anglo-American rift over a common EU defence policy was stirred on Saturday by the UK Opposition defence spokesman, Bernard Jenkin, who claimed that Tony Blair has betrayed personal commitments to President Bush to retain the primacy of Nato.

Mr Jenkin, who is close to the Republican administration in Washington, believes the pressure on Britain from France and Germany to agree a common defence policy as part of the new EU constitution represents “the biggest threat to Anglo-US relations for a decade”.

Mr Jenkin said: “There are voices in the US administration that now realise the French are out to deliberately sideline Nato. They are finally blowing a fuse.”

The UK foreign secretary, Jack Straw, conceded on Saturday that the draft constitution does not yet sufficiently uphold the primacy of Nato.

He has continually assured the US that Nato will remain the basis for protecting European security, but Mr Jenkin claims future defence crises affecting Britain are likely to occur outside mainland Europe.

Mr Blair has run into trouble with a suspicious Bush administration by trying to find ways to boost the EU’s limited military clout.

Jacques Chirac, the French president — and the EU leader whose motives are most mistrusted in the US, said he was determined to go ahead, but even he sounded emollient on Saturday, insisting that no “putsch” was intended.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and summit host, said: “For over 50 years Nato has been the basis of our collective defence and it should remain so.” —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.