Germany clears way for possible EU Congo mission
BRUSSELS, May 26 (Reuters) - Germany has dropped objections to a possible European Union peacekeeping mission in Congo, making a first military operation in Africa by the 15-nation bloc more likely, diplomats said on Monday.
EU foreign ministers said last week they would consider sending troops to support an emergency U.N. force in eastern Congo, where inter-ethnic fighting has killed hundreds and made thousands homeless and hungry.
EU diplomats said Berlin was initially cool to the request by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, arguing that Congo was a long way from Europe, a difficult military challenge and a conflict on which there was no agreed EU foreign policy.
But Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana last Friday that while Germany was unlikely to participate, it would not block such action, the diplomats said.
Solana is expected to make a recommendation to the next EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on June 16 after receiving a report from a French military reconnaissance mission in Congo's Bunia region, and a more detailed request from Annan.
Paris has said it is willing to send peacekeepers to the former Belgian colony only as part of a multinational force.
France would probably be the lead nation in a brigade-sized European force that would likely include some British troops but would not need to use NATO military assets, the sources said.
Solana would look to Nordic EU nations with experience of robust U.N. peacekeeping operations to round out the force. Belgium would not send troops because of colonial sensitivities but could help with logistics.
The EU is building a rapid reaction force of up to 60,000 troops for tasks from peacekeeping to separating warring parties and launched its first military mission last month with a force of just 350 in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.
