LONDON: A new Nato rapid response force would strike suspected terrorist bases anywhere in the world with or without the permission of the host nation, senior British sources said.

A US plan for an allied force capable of being deployed within five or 15 days, is expected to be agreed at next week’s Nato summit in Prague where western leaders are also due to increase membership of the organization from 19 to 26.

The response force will be a “find and strike” unit targeting terrorist organizations who may be building up new bases. “We know Al Qaeda is trying to set up the kind of arrangements they had in Afghanistan,” said a senior British official who referred to the presence of cells in Indonesia, Yemen, and Morocco. “A couple of hundred may be holed up in a failed state which may not be able to cope with it.”

Under the plan, Nato could respond quickly to a request to disrupt camps or places where it was suspected that terrorists were hiding biological or chemical weapons, the sources said.

However, they made it clear that Nato would strike even without a request from the government of the country where the target was located.

In an attempt to breathe new life into the alliance, Nato foreign ministers earlier this year agreed that Nato “must be able to field forces that can move quickly to wherever they are needed”.

The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, told his colleagues at a meeting in Warsaw in September that Nato must set up a rapid response force that would go “any time, anywhere, at very short notice”, to attack the enemy.

The force would consist of some 20,000 troops, backed up by air and naval support.

It will be “up and running” within two to four years, British officials said.

Asked why the US wanted the European allies to join such a force since it could carry out such operations on its own, the British sources replied that it was preferable to have an “international campaign” with others sharing the burden.

“Military operations do not take place in a political vacuum”, added a senior official, who suggested that the Europeans would stay behind and help to restore stability on the ground after a Nato strike.

The Prague summit will also streamline Nato’s command structure, with a senior American officer heading all allied operations.

Nato had to get away from its structure of static headquarters in northern Europe, the sources said. Instead, it will set up a series of operational headquarters including new ones in Milan, Valencia, and Istanbul.—Dawn/ The Guardian News Service.