NO SPIT, SHERLOCK - Tory warns Bush team of anti-US feeling in EU

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Tory warns Bush team of anti-US mood in EU

By Toby Harnden in Washington

ANTI-AMERICANISM is rising at such an alarming rate in Europe that it threatens to "strike at the heart" of the transatlantic relationship, Francis Maude, the shadow foreign secretary, has warned.

If this "extremism" is not resisted, Mr Maude told members of the International Republican Institute on Capitol Hill, it could "drive the United States into the chill embrace of isolationism". Mr Maude took his message that the Atlantic partnership was at risk to the White House, where he met Vice-President Dick Cheney for 25 minutes, the highest-level contact yet between a Tory and the Bush administration.

The push for European integration, he said, was sowing the seeds of a dangerous rivalry with the United States. "We see it in the euro, in the European Defence and Security Policy, in Romano Prodi's vision of the European Commission 'step by step' behaving like a growing government."

Mr Maude's visit coincided with a sharp increase in scepticism within the Bush administration about the benefits of the Anglo-French inspired Euro force. Mr Cheney, Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State, and Mr Wolfowitz, number two at the Pentagon, all expressed growing concern that the proposed force could seriously undermine Nato.

American doubts have been heightened by the appointment of Gen Gustav Hagglund of Finland - a non-Nato country - to chair the EU's permanent military committee and comments by Gen Jean-Pierre Kelche, France's Chief of Defence Staff.

Mr Maude also met Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's National Security Adviser, and her deputy, Stephen Hadley.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001


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