Nieuw Europees wapen-agentschap geleid door een Brit (en)

A British official has been appointed head of the European armaments agency, ending a long squabble with France over the appointment.

The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana yesterday announced the appointment of Nick Witney as head of the unit - a key element of the EU's common foreign and security policy.

The choice became Mr Solana's after Paris and London could not find a compromise solution.

But France's annoyance at the news is likely to be mitigated by the appointment of a French officer to take over as head of the EU's military staff from February.

There is also talk of Mr Witney stepping down after three years in favour of his French counterpart.

Different ideas on defence

The armaments chief's nationality is especially important in this case, because different EU countries are said to have different ideas about what the agency should achieve.

For the Italians and Germans, the agency should be a small-scale co-ordination unit. But the French want the agency to define a European arms procurement strategy.

The UK's position is somewhere in the middle. It believes that the agency should help national defence ministries develop and harmonise armaments across the EU but that the French idea goes too far.