UK News 20-11-2000 Hague Is A Liar Says Defence Secretary who: Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon what: Dismisses Hague`s Euro-army fears where: LONDON when: Today snippet: "The political battle over Europe escalated last night with Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon calling William Hague a liar," reports The Express today. The row is over the creation of a European "rapid reaction force", to be agreed at talks in Brussels today. Yesterday on LWT`s Jonathan Dimbleby programme, Mr Hague said that the force would effectively be a "Euro-army" which would inevitably undermine Nato and relations with the United States. "If it looks like an elephant and sounds like an elephant, it is an elephant," said Mr Hague. "And this sounds and looks like a European Army however much Mr Cook tries to deny it." "Although defence sources stress that a maximum of 12,000 troops will be deployed on any EU operation," says Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent to The Telegraph, "they will be the forces already committed to Nato`s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, the UN`s peacekeeping forces and Sierra Leone". "The myth of a European army undermining Britain`s sovereignty, and Nato, is being peddled again," replies Mr Hoon in today`s Express. "I don`t like to accuse people of lying. But when people say Brussels will order our troops into battle, it`s a lie." [... more]

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