NATO to Try to "Cut Fat, Not Muscle"

According to Secretary-General Rasmussen...

The financial crisis has put huge pressure on the defence spending of NATO allies, but there is shared understanding of the need to "cut fat and not muscle" from military budgets, NATO's head said on Thursday.

Some allies have already been forced to make deep cuts in defence spending, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting of alliance defence ministers.

"And there is more to come," he told a news briefing.

"The bottom line is this: there will be less money for defence for quite some time. That's the way it is. But we can use this crisis to make the right changes to focus on the right things and to do as much as possible together."

Rasmussen said he was encouraged by a shared understanding among the 28 NATO states on how to cope with reduced resources.

By: Brant