Brussels, 15/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Chris Patten turned to the media on Friday to respond to Colin Powell's comments on the United States' foreign policy (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4) which he described as "profoundly misguided". In an article published in the Financial Times, Mr Patten continued his offensive against the US's return to a rejection of multilateralism. "My answer is not that the unilateralist urge is wicked but that it is ultimately ineffective and self-defeating". He calls on the "world's only superpower" not to give in to "dangerous instincts" following the "stunning and unexpectedly rapid success of the military campaign in Afghanistan". He calls on the US to resist temptations that the "projection of military power is the only basis of true security; that the US can rely only on itself; and that allies may be useful as an optional extra but that the US is big and strong enough to manage without them if it must". Mr Patten hoped that the US would "engage with a complex and dangerous world", not by "branding a disparate group of countries as an "axis of evil"" but by providing "American leadership and international co-operation".