France tells Europe to pull its weight on defence

PARIS, Aug 27 (Reuters) French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged European Union nations today to accept a greater share of defence spending to cope with escalating global threats.

He said the United States had nothing to fear from European efforts to promote its own defence and called for a rationalisation of existing arms programmes in Europe's fragmented 200 billion euro (270 billion dollars) defence industry.

''We can't carry on with four countries paying for the security of all the rest,'' Sarkozy told France's overseas ambassadors in a foreign policy speech.

France's defence procurement budget is the second biggest in Europe behind Britain.

Together with Germany and Italy, Europe's four largest economies accounted for 75 per cent of European defence spending in 2005, according to the European Defence Agency.

Unlike Germany and Italy, however, Britain and France spend more than 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence, which is a NATO benchmark, according to EDA figures.

''In the face of multiplying crises, there is not a surplus but a shortage of (defence) capacity (in Europe),'' Sarkozy said.

''I would like Europeans to assume their full role and responsibilities for their own security and for the security of the world. That means we need to boost our planning and opoerational capacity and develop a European arms industry with new programmes and by rationalising existing ones.'' OVERLAPPING PROJECTS In France's recent election campaign, Sarkozy pledged to keep French defence spending at 2 per cent of gross domestic product and to press ahead with costly plans for a new aircraft carrier.

Defence analysts blame a proliferation of overlapping projects in Europe on the refusal of France and others to share out sensitive projects that guarantee thousands of jobs.

Sarkozy sought to reassure the United States over European Union efforts to boost the region's defence capabilities, saying these should be seen as complementing rather than rivalling the 58-year-old North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

''Putting the EU in opposition to NATO doesn't make any sense because we need both. Better still, I am convinced it is in the well-understood interests of the United States that the EU should gather its forces, rationalise its capabilties and organise its own defence in an independent way.'' Sarkozy said France would push for a European security strategy to be adopted during its EU presidency next year.

France has traditionally highlighted the importance of the EU building up its defence capability and has been suspected by some NATO allies of holding back the 26-member alliance in its efforts to create a new post-Cold War role for itself.

But many French commentators say that Sarkozy, a self-proclaimed Atlanticist, leans more towards Washington than his predecessor Jacques Chirac, a fellow conservative who clashed with US President George Bush over Iraq.

REUTERS RAR RN1814