France, Germany Seek NDM Dialogue with U.S.

France, Germany Seek NDM Dialogue with U.S.


By Tom Heneghan

PARIS (Reuters) - France and Germany declared themselves ready on Friday for a dialogue with the United States on a proposed anti-missile shield in the hope that President Bush was ready to change his views after hearing theirs.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced after an informal bilateral summit that Paris and Berlin -- which were both very cool to U.S. envoys touting the new defense plan in Europe this week -- were ready to take up Bush's offer of a dialogue.

``Dialogue means exchanging opinions and can only function if each side is ready to take the other side's views seriously and nothing is decided in advance,'' Schroeder said after dining with France's President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

Dialogue also meant each side should be ready to modify its position, he added. Chirac, host to the bilateral meeting meant to focus on EU issues, also expressed support for a dialogue.

The leaders of the European Union's key bilateral partnership also agreed to draw up a common position on EU enlargement before the bloc's summit in Sweden next month and said they would continue discussing their contrasting views on the EU's future.

U.S. CHARM OFFENSIVE

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz met concern and skepticism in Paris and Berlin this week when he met leaders as part of a charm offensive to win support for Bush's planned departure from conventional disarmament thinking.

German officials said they still had big questions and got few answers about Washington's actual plans. A French spokesman simply said Paris expressed doubts about the high-tech shield.

Wolfowitz insisted in his talks that the system meant to intercept missiles from so-called ``rogue states'' would be good for Washington's allies and did not mean the United States had lost interest in arms control.

Unveiling the project last week, Bush said it was time to ''move beyond'' the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Moscow which no longer reflected post-Cold War strategic reality.

But he gave few details on the type of systems envisaged, the timetable, the legal framework or how Washington planned to deal with Russian and Chinese opposition to the idea.

Schroeder praised Bush's speech as ``a great speech'' before stressing how Germany and France interpreted the offer of a dialogue with Washington's allies that the president made in it.

Neither Schroeder nor Chirac gave any other details of their views on missile defense.

On Thursday, the European aerospace group EADS -- formed last year from the merger of France's Aerospatiale Matra, Germany's DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and Casa of Spain -- said it was seeking a role in the controversial missile project.

AGREE TO AGREE ON ENLARGEMENT

On European issues, the leaders announced they would present to the bloc's summit in Gothenburg next month a common position on the EU's program to take in new members from eastern Europe but gave no details.

``We discussed the problem of enlargement and agreed the positions of Germany and France were identical,'' Chirac said without giving any details.

Germany has expressed worries about an influx of low-paid workers from the new members and sought to ban free movement of workers from the candidate countries for up to seven years.

Located further from the old east-west border, France has not shown much concern about this.

The leaders played down differences over the future shape of the EU, an issue where disagreements emerged this week when French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine rejected a plan for a pan- European government presented by Schroeder's party.

France, sensitive about Germany's growing influence since its reunification in 1990, sees the plan as a ploy to undercut the role of member states and water down the EU agricultural policies that clearly benefit French farmers.

In contrast to Germany, where all political leaders have come out clearly for a more federal EU with greater powers for the European Commission and Parliament, the French agree they want the decision-making Council of Ministers to continue its key role.

But the rivalry between conservative Chirac and Socialist Jospin, who are expected to face each other in next year's presidential election, has meant Paris has not been able to present a clear alternative to the proposals coming from Berlin.