European leaders pledge support to U.S.

BRUSSELS, SEPT. 22. European Union leaders have declared full solidarity with the United States and pledged support for any ``targeted'' actions it might take against the architects of last week's devastating attacks.

At an emergency summit in Brussels, the 15 leaders also called yesterday for a global anti-terrorism coalition under the auspices of the United Nations and endorsed a radical action plan to combat terrorism in Europe, previously a national prerogative. ``We express our total solidarity with the American people in the face of the terrorist attacks. On the basis of U.N. Security Council 1368, an American riposte is legitimate,'' the Belgian Prime Minister, Mr. Guy Verhofstadt told a news conference.

``These actions must be targeted. These actions can be equally directed against States which help, support, shelter terrorists,'' Mr. Verhofstadt said, reading a text of the summit's conclusions. Each E.U. member-State was ready ``to engage in such actions, according to its means,'' the statement said. Diplomats said Britain and France, the E.U.'s main military powers, had sought an explicit reference to military action, but some non-NATO E.U. member-States had resisted this idea.

The British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Jack Straw said there was a clear recognition that military action might prove necessary. ``Any riposte by any member of the United Nations (to last week's events) should be proportionate, but given the scale of the destruction and death, there is an understanding that that proportion will be significant,'' he said. ``Not only are the E.U. and member-States expressing their solidarity with the United States at its time of need, but there is a clear recognition in the conclusions of the legitimacy of any... military action which the U.S. takes,'' Mr. Straw said.

The French President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, the German Foreign Minister, Mr. Joschka Fischer and an E.U. team headed by the Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr. Louis Michel, all reported on their visits to Washington this week. Mr. Michel said the E.U. could use its good diplomatic relations with the Arab world to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

Mr. Verhofstadt told reporters the global anti- terrorism coalition must bring in Russia and Arab States and stressed that the ``terrorists'' must not be allowed to harm the West's relations with the Islamic world. He said Belgium, which holds the E.U.'s rotating presidency, would organise a trip by senior officials to West Asia next week to explain the Union's stance to key governments.

E.U. leaders instructed their Interior and Justice Ministers to adopt by December far-reaching proposals for a common definition of terrorism and a Europe-wide search and arrest warrant. They also agreed that the Ministers should ``proceed to identify suspected terrorists in Europe as well as the organisations which support them in order to establish a common list of terrorist organisations.'' As tumbling share prices and soaring airline insurance dramatised the damage to their economies from the attacks on New York and Washington, the leaders said there was no reason why the short-term economic impact should cause a global recession.

The leaders said the Euro single currency, which goes into circulation on January 1, 2002, had helped to prevent major turbulence in currency markets after the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

Heightening expectations of a possible U.S. military strike, NATO cancelled at the last minute a long-scheduled Defence Ministers' meeting due to have taken place next Wednesday and Thursday in Naples, Italy. - Reuters

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