EU creates new rapid reaction forces

France, Germany and Spain agreed to set up one such force, while Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Germany also signed an agreement to create another at a meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels.

The force is a "concrete contribution to the rapid reaction capacities that the European Union has decided it wants to have," French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on the sidelines of the Brussels talks.

The EU plans to have 13 rapid response "battle groups" in operation by 2007, and sees them as a major step in matching its economic and growing political strength with military muscle.

The 1,500-strong tactical groups, which will put flesh on long-standing EU plans to have an independent military capacity, will be able to be deployed within 15 days and remain on the ground for up to four months.

Alliot-Marie, who was accompanied by Spanish Defence Minister Jose Bono and junior German defence minister Peter Eickenboom, said such forces of "immediate intervention could help prevent a conflict from deteriorating."