An added problem was the creation of multinational corps.

In their communique issued on Friday, the NATO leaders said the alliance "will rely increasingly on multinational corps made up of national units."

Most experts think that the failed idea has little bearing on the new plans for multinational corps.

The difference, Mr. Boutros-Ghali says, is that these officials under the blue-and-white United Nations flag are a multinational corps "not one foreign power."

At a Helsinki meeting in December 1999 and a follow-up meeting in Sintra, Portugal on February 2000, there was agreement on a 15 brigade multinational corps with air and naval support, ready by 2003.

In awarding its Peace Prize to United Nations peacekeeping forces, the Nobel committee honors a brave and under-recognized multinational corps that has contributed strongly to containing violence in world trouble spots.

Sitting on a metal chair beside the console that controls the music, he speaks softly in English (the lingua franca of the multinational ballet corps) and makes light of mistakes he spots.

The centerpiece of the reorganization will be a multinational rapid-reaction corps of 50,000 to 70,000 troops under British command, partly based in Germany.

I am not just referring to the experience consolidated some time ago now in the integration of European armed forces within multinational corps such as the Eurocorps, Eurofor and Euromarfor.

It will rely increasingly on multinational corps made up of national units.