Nato chief urges more arms spending

Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called on European allies to spend more on defence and work together to reduce the reliance on the United States for high-tech weapons.

Fogh Rasmussen said in Madrid today that the Libya operation highlighted the dependency on US surveillance and intelligence equipment and precision weapons “simply because no other ally has them available”.

He said not every ally need have these capabilities but he wanted to see more of them across the alliance.

He said: “That is why I am concerned about the low level of defence spending, especially in Europe.”

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates recently hit out at European allies for not spending more on defence.