WASHINGTON, Dec 4: President George Bush on Thursday reaffirmed US opposition to any moves to create a European defence system that could undermine Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

During talks between Mr Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, plans for a European Union defence cell were among a “a range of issues” discussed by the two leaders, a White House spokesman said.

The same US warning over the European defence initiative was made by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a speech to Nato foreign ministers in Brussels.

Mr Powell said: “The United States cannot accept independent EU structures that duplicate existing Nato capabilities.”

The row over Europe’s defence initiative has been simmering for months, ever since four countries opposed to the Iraq invasion — France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg — unveiled plans in April for an autonomous military planning cell outside Brussels.

The United States at one stage warned that the plans represented a “significant” threat to Nato, which has long been dominated by the United States.

At the talks with Mr Blair, President Bush insisted the United States seeks “a dynamic, mutually reinforcing relationship between Nato and the EU, without duplication and divisiveness, and grounded in the essential Nato-EU agreements which underpin it”, spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

Mr Blair has supported plans to strengthen European cooperation on defence and a greater role for Europe’s rapid-reaction force within UN operations. This has reportedly caused tensions with Washington.

But the US president highlighted a joint US-British statement released when Bush visited Britain two weeks ago.

The United States fears that an EU defence initiative would rob Nato of some military capability and “double up” existing military structures.

The London statement maintained US and British support for a European security and defence policy that “improves Europe’s capabilities to act and develops in a way that is fully coordinated, compatible and transparent with Nato”.

It also stressed that, “with new members and new capabilities, Nato will be a cornerstone of world security in the 21st century”.

The British prime minister has insisted that European defence can be improved without undermining Nato.

“There is nobody I know of in Europe that wants to see European defence go forward at the expense of Nato,” Mr Blair told a Nov 27 press conference with President Jacques Chirac of France.

“Nato will remain the cornerstone of our defence,” Mr Blair said.

“Neither the Germans nor the French wish in the slightest way to take any initiative which will be in contradiction with Nato, which as the prime minister has said, is the mainstay of European defence,” Mr Chirac said.

BRUSSELS MEETING: Nato leaders at the Brussels meeting expressed confidence on Thursday that the European Union will not duplicate Alliance structures with its own military planning cell.