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EU makes military debut in shadow of Iraq war

SKOPJE: The European Union launched its first military operation on Monday, taking over Nato's small peacekeeping mission in Macedonia in a ground-breaking venture overshadowed by the US-led war in Iraq.

EU officials see the new mission in the former Yugoslav republic, where government forces fought Albanian rebels in 2001, as a bright spot in the development of the bloc's common foreign and security policy at a time of division over Iraq.

NATO Secretary General George Robertson described it as the opening of a new chapter in European security.

"By taking on its first military mission, the EU is demonstrating that its project of a European security and defence policy has come of age," he said at a ceremony attended by local leaders including ex-rebel chief Ali Ahmeti.

A soldier of the new force marked the formal handover by unfurling the EU flag at NATO headquarters in the capital Skopje.

But the launch of Operation Concordia may draw little international attention because of the war in Iraq, which is backed by EU member Britain but opposed by Union heavyweights Germany and France.

A French general will be in charge of the force of 300 lightly armed peacekeepers drawn from 27 countries, including present and future members of the EU.

The force known as EUFOR replaces a NATO mission deployed since August 2001 to help safeguard peace in Macedonia after six months of conflict. Its main task will be to monitor the situation and show a visible international presence.

The fighting ended in Macedonia with a Western-brokered peace deal under which the guerrillas agreed to lay down arms in return for better rights for the large Albanian minority.

Since then, the impoverished country has been mostly peaceful, despite sporadic violent incidents and reports of a shadowy rebel group. A moderate government took office last year.

"I hope this is the first mission for the EU but the last for Macedonia," Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski said.

Although tiny in scope and limited to six months, the mission is seen as an important test bed for future larger and more complex peacekeeping and humanitarian operations.

The EU, which is planning to set up a Rapid Reaction Force of up to 60,000 troops for crisis management operations within and beyond its borders, is also hoping to take over Nato's much larger Bosnian peacekeeping mission in early 2004.-Reuters