NATO gives final okay for rapid-reaction force

RIGA, Nov 29 (Reuters) NATO declared its long-awaited rapid-reaction force fully operational at a summit today after military sources said Turkey, the United States and several European nations pledged troops and equipment.

The NATO Response Force (NRF), with a troop strength of up to 25,000 soldiers, is designed to be sent at days' notice to troublespots around the world and is the flagship of efforts to forge a post-Cold War security role for the military alliance.

''It plays a vital part in the Alliance's response to a rapidly emerging crisis,'' NATO leaders said in a joint statement on the force, which had been due to be declared fully ready last month.

Military sources said that aside from the United States and Turkey, France, Spain and Germany had also come forward with offers of either troops or equipment needed for the NRF.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said allies had also agreed on arrangements to jointly finance the costly air transport needed for troops and equipment in NRF missions.

The NRF has already helped in humanitarian operations in Pakistan and conducted exercises in the Atlantic Ocean island of Cape Verde this year in which it simulated a mission to quell a full-blown ethnic conflict.

REUTERS PDM VV1737