(AVIGNON) - Both US presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, want the European Union to play a bigger role in world crises, the French presidency of the bloc said on Friday.

"Both candidates as well as the current US administration want the EU to be more politically present in the world," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters in southern France.

Kouchner was speaking after the first of two days of talks with EU foreign ministers in the French city of Avignon on the Russia-Georgia conflict and transatlantic relations.

He said the ministers were working on a joint document on EU ties with the United States that would be sent to Washington and both US presidential candidates once finalised at a new ministerial meeting in Paris later this year.

The French minister said the crisis in Georgia had shown that "European reponses are not always exactly the same as American responses. They need to be complementary."

The EU's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said Europe had to "raise our own game" to become an "equal partner to the United States."

"That means to be more clear and united in the positions we are taking," she said.

She argued that the Georgia conflict was a "good example" of Europe's ability to act and stay united in a crisis, and said the document debated on Friday was a "very good basis" for the future.

Earlier British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for Europe and the United States to step up their cooperation on global political and economic challenges.

"I think that over the last few years you've seen a determined effort on the part of the Europeans and the Americans to forge a common position issues as diverse as Iran, Russia, or international development.

"But I'm a great believer that there's still an opportunity for Europe and America to work together, not at the expense of the rising powers in China and India but as a way of binding them into the global system."

The Europeans hope to forge a common stance towards the United States on a wide range of issues, regardless of who wins the November presidential race.

"It would be the first time that we Europeans would be able to have a more or less united discourse," said a French diplomat.

"Today we think it is possible," whether concerning the Middle East, Afghanistan, the role of multilateralism or climate change, he said.

The US-led invasion of Iraq sparked a rift between Washington and several European states, and left Europe divided between supporters and opponents of the war.

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