Be ready to strike terror states, Rumsfeld tells Nato

NATO must be prepared to take pre-emptive action against terrorists or states that back them, America said yesterday when it stepped up pressure on its European allies to transform the alliance and boost its military capabilities.

Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, gave a stark warning to his Nato colleagues of the dangers posed by states including Iran and Iraq, and argued that terrorists would gain access to biological or chemical weapons.

Asked whether Nato – which has always defined itself as a defensive alliance – should take pre-emptive action against terrorists, Mr Rumsfeld replied that the nature of terrorism meant that traditional definitions needed to be re-examined.

He said: "If a terrorist can attack at any time, at any place, using any technique, and it is physically impossible to defend every place at every time against every technique, then one needs to calibrate the definition of 'defensive'. The only defence is to find these global networks and deal with them as the US did in Afghanistan. Now is that defensive or is it offensive? I personally think of it as defensive."

His comments came days after President George Bush warned in a speech that America had to be ready to strike pre-emptively against terrorists.

In his meeting with fellow ministers in Brussels, Mr Rumsfeld called on the alliance to take the initiative from the terrorists and "terror-states", adding that attacks on the Nato nations were inevitable, even if their time and location could not be predicted. Those warnings were repeated at a later press conference when the Defence Secretary argued that, if the alliance did not prepare, "we could well experience the type of attacks which make the events of 11 September seem modest by comparison".

That fear was echoed by Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the Nato secretary general, who said the alliance needed to reform to meet new threats.

Lord Robertson argued, however, that Nato was a "defensive alliance and will remain a defensive alliance".

The stern words of Mr Rumsfeld coincided with a US push to reshape the alliance, boosting its rapid reaction capabilities and reforming its command structure which dates from the Cold War.

With a massive disparity between defence spending in Europe and that of America, Washington is applying pressure on Nato governments to improve the effectiveness of their armed forces.

The Nato allies will seek to agree at Prague in the autumn a series of new military priorities and a timetable for increasing capabilities. Yesterday they agreed to set "target dates that our countries will make", pointing to the possibility of the reduction of force levels and a shift of resources towards modernisation. They noted, though, that "in many cases substantial financial resources will also be required". The Nato wish list is likely to include heavy lift facilities for troops, air-to-air refuelling, logistical support, intelligence capabilities and secure communications which can be used by troops in a multinational force.

If the hard financial decisions have yet to be taken, there was agreement on the need to transform the alliance, even from nations traditionally more sceptical of the American agenda. Michele Alliot-Marie, the French Defence Minister, said that "our forces need to be more flexible, more mobile and we have to make them less vulnerable to chemical or biological attacks".

Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, underlined the need for change, adding that he was concerned "that the memory of the appalling events of 11 September has faded a little faster than we might have expected".