Straw declined to criticize the summit by France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium -- which all opposed the US-British war in Iraq.

But he said he hoped to discuss European defence "collaboratively" with his EU partners at a two-day informal meeting on the Greek island of Rhodes.

"Everybody welcomes commitments to increasing defence capabilities, the policy of European countries to put troops on the ground," Straw told reporters at the meeting.

"But the important thing is that it should be done in a way that underpins our commitment to NATO and our commitment to European defence," he said.

"What we're going to do is discuss that whole issue of European defence in a collaborative and cooperative way."

At their mini-summit Tuesday, the quartet called for deeper military integration by proposing their own command headquarters for military operations outside the NATO arena.

In a bid to clear the air, Belgium and Luxembourg have been asked to present their counterparts with details of the plans on Saturday, when the shirt-sleeved ministers will take a half-day Aegean cruise.

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, whose country was accused by some of electioneering ahead of legislative polls this month, stood firm Friday.

"I don't expect there to be a witchhunt. I expect people to recognize the good faith of the four (countries). A certain number of people having given this summit a significance that it did not have," he said.

SPACE.WIRE