Javier Solana, the former NATO secretary general and current EU foreign policy high representative, portrayed the differences between the United States and its European allies on missile defense as "not very dramatic."

Solana met Monday with Secretary of State Colin Powell and was to meet with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Over the weekend he met at a conference in Munich with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who put US allies on notice that Washington intends to deploy a national missile defense, known as NMD.

"It was a constructive meeting in which the idea that dominated is that 'We Americans are going to make a political statement. We are going forward with NMD'," Solana told reporters here.

"And we Europeans said, 'Well, you know how we feel about NMD, that what we have to do is start a dialogue on this issue, a dialogue that has to have many elements but that has to at least prefer some elements, like we have to continue with the policy of arms control. We have to proceed with the treaties that are in place'," he said.

At the same gathering, Russia's national security adviser Sergey Ivanov Sunday reaffirmed Moscow's opposition to US national missile defense as a violation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty that would threaten global stability.

The treaty as it now stands would bar deployment of even a limited missile defense system, raising the possibility that the new administration will withdraw from the treaty if Russia does not agree to changes.

Solana indicated that the Europeans recognize Rumsfeld's argument that the world has changed since the treaty was signed to ensure a nuclear balance between the United States and the Soviet Union.

"It is not a bipolar world at this moment. Therefore the ABM, although it's an important treaty, is not the Bible. Indeed it can be changed if there is agreement among the signatories of the treaty," he said.

"If everyone takes into account the new situation, and the two signatories agree on that, of course it is not the Bible. For us Europeans, what we would like is for the major powers to do this by consensus if possible," he said.

Besides missile defense, Powell and Solana were expected to discuss European plans for a 60,000-member rapid reaction force and how it will be coordinated with NATO, a State Department spokesman said.

The new administration wants to make sure it adds to NATO's capabilities, and avoids duplication, said Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman.

"Are we in full agreement on the missile defense or on the European security issues? Not yet. But we have made considerable progress, we've had considerable discussions and we'll continue to work with them," he said.

Solana said he found Rumsfeld to be "in a listening mood" in Munich and did not sense a "special negative attitude" toward the European Union's effort to forge its own capability to intervene in crises when the United States does not want to get involved.

All rights reserved. � 2001 Agence France-Presse. All information displayed on this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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