Agreeing to develop European Union military capability, the leaders of four countries that opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq gathered for a mini defence summit held in Brussels. It was aimed at furthering integration of EU members' defence capacities, boosting cost-efficiency and doing away with duplication. With the credibility of the Union's fractured foreign policy a central theme, French President Jacques Chirac said the four states saw their engagements within a European defence framework and towards NATO as complementary; 'building a stronger Europe will obviously make for a stronger Atlantic Alliance.' Proposals were approved for an autonomous European military headquarters to be set up near Brussels by summer next year, a European agency for arms procurement - and pooling military resources, and also a defence college.

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