The response comes after Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini asked for the summit on a common EU defence policy -- due to be held on April 29 in Brussels -- to be opened up to all members.

"The idea of a summit at the end of April is a good thing, among the 15, many of whom have the same ideas about these issues. But it must be something for all 15," Frattini had said in an interview on Tuesday.

"(Foreign Minister George) Papandreou will broach this question with his European counterparts and it will be discussed during the informal council meeting of foreign ministers on May 2," a Greek foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

But the fact that the question of opening up the event will only be dealt with three days after its planned date suggests that the mini-summit will go ahead as planned.

Currently only Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg are involved in the initiative -- all of which are opposed to the US-led war on Iraq.

The Greek EU presidency has said that while it supports the inititative, it will not be attending.

"As holder of the presidency, I feel that it would be negative for the EU not to broach such an important question within the EU framework," Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Wednesday.

For this reason, the Greek presidency has asked French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt "to share their thoughts (with other countries) within the European institutions", Simitis said.

The April 29 summit has revived talk of a "two-tiered" European Union at a time when the continent's politicians and people are badly split over Iraq.

Italy, among several EU member states to have criticised the summit, takes over from Greece as holder of the EU presidency in July.

SPACE.WIRE