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France pulls out from

Mcads project

WASHINGTON: The United States, Germany and Italy have decided to jointly develop a battlefield missile defense system even though France pulled out of the project, a Pentagon official said on Thursday.

France was supposed to be the fourth partner with a 20 percent stake in the project, once singled out by Defense Secretary William Perry as a test of trans-Atlantic cooperation in weapons development.

But at a meeting of US and European armaments directors in Brussels this week, France announced it was suspending its participation in the project but with the possibility of resuming it in the future, French sources said.

The other partners in the Medium Extended Air Defence System (MEADS) project have decided to go ahead and sign a memorandum of understanding without France, a Pentagon official said.

"The Germans and Italians are going to sign the agreement on Monday in Europe. Then they'll send it to the Pentagon for (Under Secretary of Defence Paul) Kaminiski's signature," the official said.

"The French will not sign but have been invited to if they want to come back in," the official said.

The programme's goal is to develop a mobile anti-missile system that would provide 360-degree coverage of maneouvering forces against tactical ballistic missiles and other threats.

The Pentagon official was unable to say how the absence of the French would affect the funding for the project.

The Pentagon, which plans to spend 114 million$ in the initial phase of the project, was to assume 50 percent of the cost, Germany 20 percent, France 20 percent and Italy 10 percent.

The signing of the memorandum of understanding has been delayed twice.

When French indecision forced a postponement of the original signing March 28, Kaminski gave France until April 15 to decide but warned that after that it would be time for the partners to reassess the project.

In letters to his European counterparts, the Pentagon's acquisitions chief said "the United States cannot postpone the initiation of the programme indefinitely" and warned of the "real risk" of losing congressional support for the programme if it was not begun in earnest this year.-AFP