EU defence officials consider Congo mission

European Union defence officials begin a two-day meeting in Austria today to study plans for a European contingent to help safeguard elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo later this year.

The officials are due to begin talks tomorrow morning on a United Nations request for the EU to provide around 800 troops to help protect Congo's first free elections since independence from Belgium in 1961.

Ideally, the forced would be deployed on the ground in Congo for the elections, scheduled for June 18th. However, an EU fact-finding mission earlier this year concluded it might be sufficient to have most troops on standby outside the country, ready to deploy if trouble erupted.

A number of EU nations - including Ireland, France, Germany, Sweden and Belgium - have said they would be willing to support the mission. Britain has said it will not take part in the force because of its commitments elsewhere, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

It remains unclear how many troops could be raised for the potentially risky operation. "It is hoped that some nations will be more specific in what they can offer," said one EU diplomat ahead of the two-day talks in Innsbruck.

Ireland is being represented at the meeting by the secretary general at the Department of Defence, Michael Howard.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said after a meeting last week with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana that the Government would, in principle, look favourably on the request to send Irish troops to the DR Congo if it satisfied the triple lock mechanism of UN, Government and Dáil approval to ensure Irish neutrality.

The Defence Forces undertook a previous deployment in the Congo in the early 1960s. Some 27 Irish soldiers died during the mission, including nine in an ambush in November 1960, the worst single incident in the Defence Forces' history.

Ireland has 760 troops serving in Liberia, Kosovo and Bosnia. This means only around 90 members of the Defence Forces would be available to join a peacekeeping mission in Congo.

The Innsbruck meeting is today discussing proposals for a common EU fund on defence research, aimed at narrowing the growing lead of the United States in high-tech military equipment.

Britain and France spend around €700 million a year on defence research and technology out of an EU total of some €2 billion. Washington spends five times more on such research than all EU states put together.

Additional Reporting: Agencies