The 1,500-strong tactical groups, which will put flesh on long-standing EU plans to have an independent military capacity, will be able to be deployed within 15 days.

One unit will be up and running by next year, while all of them should be operational by 2007.

"The European Union has entered a new stage in the process of strengthening military capabilities for crisis management," said the EU presidency in a statement at a meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels.

"The battle groups are at the forefront of capability improvement, providing the Union with credible, rapidly deployable, coherent force packages capable of stand-alone operations, for the initial phase of larger operations."

France, Italy, Spain and Britain have each agreed to form one unit, and all other EU states have agreed to contribute to at least one group, said Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp.

"It seems that we should be able to have enough battle groups to respect the targets we set ourselves, including having an initial capacity in 2005 and full capacity in 2007," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"That shows that we all agree on the importance of this project," he said, while noting that some details still remain to be hammered out, including decision-making arrangements.

He warned that such arrangements should not be allowed to slow down the battle groups' deployment.

"We have to ... keep in mind the essential quality of these battle groups: quick deployment and military efficiency. We must not allow these two factors to be called into question. That would negate the basic reason for this ambitious project," he said.

The troops would be used for operations outside the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, such as missions in support of the United Nations.