EUobserver.com

Germany has indicated that it might be willing to lead EU peacekeeping troops to secure elections in Congo, but member states are reluctant to provide soldiers to the mission.

According to Reuters, when asked if he expected Germany to drop its initial reluctance to lead the mission, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said "I think so".

At a meeting of EU defence ministers in the Austrian alpine resort of Innsbruck on Monday (6 March), German defence minister Franz-Josef Jung appeared to soften Berlin's reluctance to lead the operation, but insisted that he expected others to offer troops for the mission.

"We have always said we will not sidestep a responsibility, but there is an overall responsibility for Europe here," Mr Jung said.

"We have always said very clearly that it must be a combined European effort, there must be a fair distribution. Germany can't commit to sending 1,500 soldiers," he added.

Berlin had earlier ducked EU pressure to assume leadership over a possible force in Congo, with domestic public opinion wary of troop deployment in Africa.

However, Britain and France both refused to lead the mission meaning Germany was the only member state left with sufficient military capacity to do so.

Portugal and Austria have said they might "symbolically" send half a dozen soldiers.

Spain has been asked to send soldiers, but despite foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos expressing "good intention", Spanish diplomatic sources at the meeting in Innsbruck said that the chance of Spanish troops being deployed in Congo were "minimal", writes daily ABC.

Finnish defence minister Seppo Kaariainen said that Finland might consider contributing a few staff officers to the operation, but no troops.

But Mr Solana indicated there is no doubt that the EU mission will be in place during the elections in Congo.

"Go? We will go," he is reported to have said, writes ABC.

The UN together with the Congolese president Joseph Kabila in January asked Brussels to help beef up its security presence in the war-struck African country, and provide troops to help protect Congo's first free elections since independence from Belgium in 1961.

Cutting down EU presence in Bosnia
While thinking about pepping up its military presence in Africa, the union is also considering withdrawing its peacekeeping troops closer to home, in the Balkans.

Austrian defence minister Günther Platter, who was hosting the two-day informal meeting, said that the number of soldiers in Bosnia should be cut from 6,700 to 6000 in the short term.

In the "medium term", EU soldiers in the area should not number more than 2,500, the minister said, according to Nordic press reports.

Germany may lead EU Congo mission