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Terror to dominate EU summit

Blair's pre-summit meeting with Chirac and Schroeder has ruffled feathers

GHENT, Belgium -- The worldwide battle against terrorism will dominate a summit of European Union leaders on Friday originally called to discuss economic issues.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, the only EU country taking active military action with the United States, will meet with President Jacques Chirac of France and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder before the summit starts.

But the three leaders' pre-summit talks outside EU auspices have unsettled some EU officials.

"I think it's a shame that some countries are going to be attending and some not," Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, the EU's executive, told the Associated Press.

The 15-nation EU has repeatedly said it stand should-to-shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorism launched after the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11. But the support of some member states has been qualified.

Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, says the organisation supports only "targeted" attacks against terrorists and those who support them, and that the EU will not be drawn into wider military conflict.

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Prodi said on Thursday that any widening of military action would require a second look by the EU.

Though he insisted there had been no dilution of EU support for the United States.

"After September 11 the European Union reacted massively and with determination," said Prodi.

"We demonstrated and will continue to demonstrate our complete solidarity with the government and people of the United States. I would not like there to be any doubt about that."

The summit of EU leaders is expected to draw protests by anti-war demonstrators and anti-globalisation groups.

It is the climax of a week of meetings of ministers of EU states.

On Wednesday, EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg to draw up a blueprint for a "significant" U.N. role in building a post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The foreign ministers were building on measures agreed by a joint meeting of home affairs and interior ministers -- also in Luxembourg -- on Tuesday.

On Monday, the EU finance, justice and transport ministers endorsed measures to combat global terrorism, including a move to apply money-laundering rules to various serious crimes, not just the illegal drugs trade.

They pledged to freeze assets of terrorists and their organisations and boost airport and airplane security.

With the world concentrating on the fight against terrorism, the Belgian presidency has been struggling to hold to the original agenda for the Ghent summit.

Nevertheless, the summit will still start with a review of preparations for introducing the EU's new single currency to the public in the eurozone nations on January 1.

A discussion of the measures taken to prepare the public for the switchover to euro banknotes and coins will be followed by a review of the economic situation in Europe following the September 11 atrocities.

Prodi said the September 11 attacks had a negative economic effect, but the EU believes the slowdown wwill wille severe. He predicts EU economies will grow about 1.5 percent this year.

Verhofstadt told fellow leaders in a pre-summit letter that after the euro discussion he intends to lead a debate on the future of Europe and plans for enlargement to include as many as a dozen new members in the coming years.

The discussion of terrorism, he said, will only be held over dinner Friday evening.