The European Union plus 13 candidate countries and three economic associates Monday threw their weight behind US retaliatory attacks on Afghanistan for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"We now have 31 European countries that have approved the common position of the European Union," Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said after EU foreign ministers met.
In addition to the applicants, Michel was referring to the non-EU members of the European Economic Area -- Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
The 15 issued fresh vows to battle terrorism alongside the US after the start of the US-British air campaign Sunday against the ruling Taliban that is sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda group the US holds responsible for the September 11 strikes on New York and Washington.
"We repeated Europe's solidarity with the US and UK military action, which is fully legitimate under UN Security Council Resolution 1368," said Michel.
But, he said, they stressed this was not a war against Islam, or Arabs, or Muslims, but against terrorists of any stripe, and pledged $300 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, speaking to reporters after the foreign ministers met, said the air campaign was, for the moment, confined to "military and terrorist targets in Afghanistan," but did not exclude its expansion to other countries.
He said the 15 agreed on "a twin-track approach -- military action...plus a very big humanitarian program."
He would not speculate how long the campaign would last.
"We have been engaged with US from the very first military operation...The military campaign will go on until there is an acceptable result, judged by the US and their allies.
"I can't predict how long, but it won't be over in a matter of days."
Michel said the EU had not excluded enlisting more allies against the Taliban, saying it would "stay in close touch with Afghanistan's neighbors, Iran and Pakistan, and we will examine a cooperation agreement with both of them."
"Let there be no doubt whatsoever," he said, "that we will fully and unreservedly play our full part in the fight against terrorism."
"The military action being taken is one part of a wider multilateral strategy in which the European Union is committed to playing its part," the ministers said in a statement.
"This involves a comprehensive assault on the organizations financing structures that underpin terrorism."
A freeze on the assets of 27 groups and individuals linked to terrorism had been atop the ministerial agenda, but was overtaken by weekend events and pushed to a back burner.
The ministers said the bloc was "determined to attack the sources of financing terrorism, working closely with the US," adding foreign ministers were to meet here again next week.
"Sanctions will be taken against persons and groups identified in concert with the Unites States" as backing terrorist activities, said the statement, adding the European Commission, the EU executive, was already "taking necessary measures to freeze assets of persons identified by the [UN] Sanctions Committee."
They called the September 11 attacks on the US "an assault on our open, democratic, tolerant and multi-cultural societies...regarded by the UN Security Council as a threat to international peace and security."
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, in regular contact with US officials, said he understood the attacks on Afghanistan had been an early success.
"I cannot elaborate about the future. We will maintain contact with our American friends in the coming hours. I think we are in a legitimate action to defeat terrorism in all its manifestations," he added -- LUXEMBOURG (AFP)
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