NATO leaders will endorse the military alliance's flag-ship response force, a 25,000-strong contingent to be sent to the world's hot spots, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said. "We will declare the NATO Response Force (NRF), a cutting edge air, land and sea expeditionary force, fully operational," Scheffer told the alliance's 26 leaders as he opened the final session of a NATO summit in Latvia on Wednesday.
The force, to be staffed by member countries on a six-month rotating basis, will stand ready to be deployed within five days for evacuations, disaster relief or counter-terrorism operations lasting for up to a month.
It will also be a pioneer force entering conflict areas quickly until a larger operation can be deployed.
The move by NATO's military commander, US General James Jones, to declare so-called "full operational capability" of the force comes after a long battle to ensure long-term contributions from the member countries.
The costs of such an arrangement have been the major barrier.
Under the alliance's "costs fall where they lie" system, contributors to a particular rotation would have to pay for any operation on their watch, which has discouraged the smaller members from taking part.
NATO officials have said the alliance is looking at using part of its common budget to fund transport costs; a move that may have helped overcome some of the reluctance.
Peacekeeping missions and operations elsewhere -- such as the EU deployment to southern Lebanon or NATO's mission in Afghanistan and the Balkans -- have also made it difficult to find troops.
NATO leaders decided to set up the force at their summit in Prague in 2002.
