Europe offers next US president partnership of equals

EU foreign ministers met Monday to agree on a joint message to the next US president, calling for a partnership of equals on key challenges from the Middle East to the global finance crisis.

French Foreign Minister Kouchner, whose country holds the EU presidency, said his counterparts from the 27-member bloc would put the seal on a letter to the winner of the US election on how to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties.

"The world has changed, because we have realised that a great country, which will remain a great country, is not the only one concerned by the world's problems," he told reporters in the southern French city of Marseille.

"The European Union has become more resolute," Kouchner said, referring in particular to the bloc's role in negotiating a solution to the Russia-Georgia conflict in August and its leadership on the global financial crisis.

British Foreign Secretary David MilibandDavid Miliband, arriving for the talks, said Europe believed it can work with Washington to shape "an inclusive global agenda that reponds to the changing economic and social and political times."

"This isn't just about asking America to do things," he told reporters. "It's about Europe stepping up as well."

Europe would, he said, "make sure that our contribution in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in responding to the global financial crisis, is strong and clear and in close alliance both with this American administration but also with the new one."

Whether under the Democrat Barack ObamaBarack Obama or his Republican rival John McCainJohn McCain, EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-WaldnerBenita Ferrero-Waldner said relations with Washington should reflect Europe's new "leadership" in world affairs.

"We want to have an even stronger relationship with the United States, and for that reason I think it's important that we say what we think is important for us. I think it should be a more balanced relationship," she said.

Kouchner and Miliband were also to brief fellow ministers on their weekend trip to Kinshasa and Kigali to try to broker an end to the unrest in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Miliband told reporters the EU had not ruled out sending a military humanitarian mission to back up the UN peacekeeping force in DR Congo, which is struggling to halt a rebel advance and prevent a looming humanitarian disaster.

"We'll be talking about the work of the 17,000 UN peacekeepers there at the moment and the role of the European Union in supporting that politically, diplomatically, and no-one's ruling out a military role," Miliband said.

"The world's political leaders are determined to make sure there's no repeat of the murderous activities of the 1990s," Miliband added, referring to the genocide in Rwanda and civil war in eastern Congo.

But he added that no decision would be taken until after the United Nations special envoy to the DR Congo had reported back to the Security Council on the upsurge in violence.

Last week, Kouchner suggested mobilising an EU battle group of up to 1,500 troops to provide humanitarian assistance for refugees displaced by fighting around the city of Goma.

EU foreign ministers were to head later Monday into a two-day summit of the 43-nation Mediterrean Union, which has been plagued with disagreements since it was launched with fanfare in July.

The new union brings together EU members with states from north Africa, the Balkans, Arab nations and Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions.

But tensions have already flared surrounding the observer status granted to the Arab League, with Arab countries seeking a more active role in the face of Israeli opposition.

Ministers hope to reach agreement on the makeup and powers of a secretariat for the union, a decision that has sparked a tug-of-war pitting European cities against southern Mediterranean rivals.