Europeans Get Tough

Britain and France, in a decisive step toward lessening Europe's military dependence on the United States, on Thursday urged the setting up of a 50,000-60,000-strong European Union rapid reaction force capable of full deployment within 60 days for at least a year.

At a joint news conference, French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair denied their initiative was a rebuff for the United States. They said in a statement that the U.S. led-NATO alliance "remains the foundation of our collective defense."

As CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports, the leaders are trying to foster a cozier European military relationship, including combining forces, sometimes even sharing command. While their armies look good on paper, European NATO members found they had to rely on the United States in Kosovo for most of the bombardment, intelligence and initial manpower.

But the White House is privately a little concerned the U.S. might get left out. The Brits say that won't happen. The French leadership, however, none too happy with America's single superpower status, say that's just fine with them.

Meanwhile, Britain's opposition Conservative Party denounced the proposed EU force as a dangerous move that could lead to the breakup of NATO, and accused Blair of being led by France into an anti-American stance.

Chirac and Blair will press the other leaders of the 15-nation EU at a meeting in Helsinki, Finland, next month to agree to provide troops, warships and aircraft for the new force. They offered the British and French military headquarters "as options to command EU-led operations."

"In no way are we impinging on the strength of NATO," said Blair, sitting alongside Chirac and French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin after a day of meetings. "This is designed to give us a capability in circumstances where NATO does not want to be involved in the traditional way."

Britain and France, the most important military powers in the EU, first put forward their plan a year ago -- and say the huge role the U.S. played in NATO's bombing campaign in Kosovo this year gave it fresh urgency.

In what was a European crisis, U.S. warplanes carried out 80 percent of the bombing. The Americans also moved most of the heavy military equipment in the campaign, which drove Serb forces out of Kosovo.

European members of NATO, meanwhile, had a tough time assembling a few tens of thousands of troops for Kosovo, British officials noted.

"We learned in Kosovo of the inability of European nations to get sufficient forces into the field sufficiently quickly," British Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon said. "Notwithstanding an enormous paper strength, the reality was only two percent of the combined armed forces of Europe were actually available."

With a compromise in sight, a continuing French ban on British beef following a 1996 crisis over what is commonl known as "mad cow disease" was overshadowed.

But the luncheon menu at Downing Street reflected a fine sense of diplomacy: English pheasant, French wines, no beef.