France determined to build European defence: Kouchner

(PARIS) - France will work to strengthen European defence during its six-month EU presidency despite the crisis over Ireland's rejection of a key reform treaty, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday.

Kouchner told an EU-NATO meeting in Paris that France's plan called for "NATO and European defence complementing each other and the prospect of a strong renewal of our relationship with NATO."

President Nicolas Sarkozy has set a course for France's return to NATO's integrated command, which it left in 1966 when Charles de Gaulle rejected US dominance of the alliance.

Despite the crisis facing the European Union over its stalled institutional reform, Europe's military capabilities must be strengthened, said Kouchner, whose country holds the EU presidency until the end of the year.

He said the European Union should have the capacity to deploy two stabilisation forces of up to 10,000 troops over two years in any theatre.

The 27-nation European Union was thrown in disarray when Ireland rejected in a referendum last month a reform treaty designed to streamline decision-making.

The treaty must be ratified by all member states to come into force.

NATO secretary general Jaap de Hopp Scheffer called for allowing Turkey, which is a member of NATO, to be given observer status at the European Defence Agency, set up in 2004 to develop a common security policy.

Kouchner said a new high-level group would be created to promote an EU-NATO dialogue and that France would present its priorities on defence to a NATO council on July 16.