Britain has detailed its commitment of UK troops to a new European Union rapid reaction force.

Final details were being agreed at a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday, with defence secretary Geoff Hoon attending from the UK.

All 25 EU countries have agreed contributions to the multinational battle groups, which are aimed at improving the union's crisis response ability.

Britain's will be one of the largest contributions with around 1,500 troops to be made available for the scheme next year.

At the 1998 St Malo summit prime minister Tony Blair and French president Jacques Chirac agreed to increase military co-operation.

The American administration appears to have accepted the value of an EU force having initially considered such a move to be a threat to the NATO alliance.

Hotspots

The force will be smaller and more highly skilled than the 60,000 strong force originally envisaged.

It is envisaged that they will be used in hotspots like the Democratic Republic of Congo where a French led EU operation has been undertaken in Bunia.

Each unit will have its own logistical support, including aircraft to transport them and communications and logistical backing to keep them in the field for between 30 and 60 days.

Every battle group will be associated with a headquarters in one of the member states which would run any operations rather than the EU's embryonic military planning cell in Brussels.

Only the UK and France are able to provide this sort of quick reaction force, but Italy, Germany and Spain will develop the means to do the same.

The plan will mean that multi-national teams will be assembled and train together to create mixed-nationality battle groups.

One EU military official said: "All EU countries have armies with their own national battle groups ready to deploy on their soil.

"This is an acknowledgement that we need something that can conduct expeditionary operations, something that can, at short notice, mount flash to bang operations when the council of ministers says so."