European Union foreign ministers today agreed a key part of the EU's emerging common foreign and security policy should be the development of its ability to prevent conflict worldwide.
The EU is currently working towards putting together a 60,000-strong rapid reaction military force for peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.
Developing conflict prevention capabilities is a key issue for Sweden, which took over the rotating EU presidency at the start of the month.
The idea has also won top-level political support from EU heads of state and government at the European summit in Nice, France last December, a gathering overshadowed by EU enlargement reforms.
They will return to the subject at their next summit in Goeteborg, Sweden in March.
EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten told the foreign ministers today that his office would have a policy paper ready in April on how to channel EU resources towards preempting conflict.
Several ministers stressed the need for the EU to coordinate more effectively with other international organisations involved in conflict prevention, such as the UN, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe.
Many foreign ministers also drew a link between conflict prevention and the European Union's substantial assistance to developing countries, many of which totter on the brink of violent confrontation.
"We must tackle the poverty that breeds the tensions that give rise to conflict," said British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, citing Africa as an example.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said EU enlargement into central Europe was itself an act of conflict prevention "that will give us a greater degree of global security."
AFP