EU-US deal on Galileo

Washington and Brussels have formally agreed terms for Europe's construction of the Galileo satellite navigation system - a deal set to be signed on Saturday in Ireland.

"For the first time we have agreed an arrangement for the sharing of national security classified information with the European Commission," a State Department official said on Monday.

Under the agreement, Europe's Galileo system will co-exist with the US 'Global Positioning System' (GPS).

The EU aims to have the €3.6 billion system - designed for civilian, intelligence and military uses - up and running by 2008.

The agreement marks the end of three years of tough Trans-Atlantic negotiations.

Washington had had fears that it might interfere with their own GPS signal used for military and Nato operations.

But late last year Brussels agreed to modify the modulation of the Galileo signal so that it would not disrupt encrypted GPS signals for government use.

Agreement was also reached on a commitment to preserve national security capabilities and non-discrimination in trade in satellite security services.

The deal is expected to be formally signed Saturday at the US-EU summit in Dromoland Castle, Ireland by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and EU commissioner Loyola de Palacio.

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