Brussels, 06/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - In an interview to the Financial Times, the president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, explained that his country wants a European Union army to be set up consisting of 100,000 men and linked to NATO. Kaczynski stated, “At the moment we have the situation where the EU needs about 8,000 troops in Lebanon and there is a problem where to find them”. He also said that, “Forces are needed which would not replace the armies of individual states, but which could be gathered without a problem when not just 8,000 but as many as 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers are needed”. The Polish president added that he had already discussed this idea with the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and that he intended discussing the subject in his meeting with the British prime minister Tony Blair in London on Monday or Tuesday. The Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski mentioned the idea to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week. The Polish proposal, however, received a sceptical welcome from German officials, particularly with regard to the link with NATO and its direct impact on command-related questions. (oj)