Solana said that by sending the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany to Iran last month -- a mission that won concessions from Tehran -- the EU had taken preventive action which could help avoid future conflict.

"Iran is a clear case of the use of preventive action. We are doing it, we are engaged," he told a Berlin conference of around 200 EU specialists in a speech outlining his vision for the bloc's future security strategy.

Solana said a report released Monday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which criticised Iran for concealing "many aspects of its nuclear activities", had vindicated the EU's actions.

"It fulfills pretty much what we wanted to obtain," he said. "They (Iran) have to stop the cycle" and "they have to go even further than the NPT" -- the safeguards laid down in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

After the foreign ministers' visit, Iran agreed to allow tougher inspections, suspend uranium enrichment and come clean on past activities by delivering a comprehensive report on its nuclear activities and trading.

Solana said the strategy -- addressing specific threats with targeted tools and methods -- was one of three areas where the EU could make a difference to global security.

He said the second was to "promote an arc of well-governed states" from the Middle East to the Caucasus via the western Balkans with which to share close and cooperative relations.

The third, he said, was for the EU to create "an effective approach to international order" based upon agreed rules and demonstrate a willingness to enforce the respect of those rules.

Solana, a former head of NATO, has been tasked by EU heads of state and government to define a new security strategy for the bloc by the end of the year, which they then plan to adopt.

WAR.WIRE