Noordwijk, Netherlands, Sept 17, SPA -- Five nations signed anagreement Friday to set up a European Gendarmerie Forcethat would offer paramilitary support for internationalpeacekeeping missions. Ministers said the 3,000-strong force would tackle adamaging shortfall in recent peacekeeping operations bybacking up military efforts to enforce public order, fightcrime and train local police in the wake of a crisis. "This force will become an important capability, bridgingthe gap between military forces and civil police," saidDutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp. The force should beoperational next year. It will include elements from the French gendarmes,Italian Carabinieri and their equivalents from Spain,Portugal and the Netherlands. The EGF will have a core of 800-900 members ready todeploy within 30 days and a pool of 2,300 reinforcements onstandby. It will be headquartered in Vicenza innortheastern Italy. Defense ministers from the five nations signed theagreement to set up the force on the sidelines of a meetingwith their colleagues from all 25 European Union nations.The other EU countries will not participate because they donot have such paramilitary police. "We will keep it open to other countries that don't yethave gendarme forces but may want to join later," saidFrench Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who firstsuggested the idea of the European force last year.--SPA1145 Local Time 0845 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/202416