The United States Department of State is accusing its European allies of placing "inappropriate" pressure on countries seeking membership in the European Union (EU) to prevent them from granting American soldiers immunity from the new International Criminal Court (ICC).

"Any suggestion that EU candidate countries hold off their decisions until the European Union looks at this — that’s, in our view, inappropriate," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said last week.

During recent meetings with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacios, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said he raised the issue of EU efforts to block agreements that would protect US peacekeepers from the ICC.

"We are having discussions with all of our European Union and other friends around the world," Powell admitted. "But we’re not bludgeoning or threatening any of our friends. We’re discussing with them our concerns about the ICC and a way of dealing with those concerns through Article 98," he said.

The "Article 98" Powell refers to a clause in the Rome Treaty that created the International Criminal Court. Article 98 also allows states to sign bilateral agreements granting immunity to other countries’ citizens.

The State Department has repeatedly warned that it will withhold military assistance, loan guarantees and cash from any nation that refuses to grant Article 98 immunity to American troops.

"If you look at the American Service Members Protection Act, there is a section that prohibits military assistance to a variety of countries or to countries that enter into the Rome Statute of the ICC," said State Department spokesman Reeker said last week.

"These restrictions do not apply to assistance to NATO member countries or major non-NATO allies or others, and it also provides the president with the authority to waive these restrictions where a country has signed an Article 98 agreement and also in other cases where it’s in the national interests."

In recent weeks, ambassadors from several countries have been invited to the State Department to receive similar warnings regarding the consequences of refusing to sign Article 98.

In retaliation, European Commission President Romano Prodi recently warned the 12 mainly former Soviet bloc countries seeking EU membership not to sign such treaties with the United States until the European Union discusses the issue.

The warning by Prodi to aspiring EU members followed an EU announcement of regret that Romania had become the first country to sign an ICC-immunity agreement with the United States.

"Other candidate countries which have also been approached by the United States, for now in any case, should not make any more moves to agree to sign such an accord," said a spokesman for Prodi last week in Brussels.

Prodi "would like that before going forward, the other candidate countries wait for a complete analysis to be completed by the EU" on the consequences of this type of accord, said the spokesman.

The 15 member nations of the EU are currently considering membership applications submitted 10 former Soviet-bloc nations — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia — as well as Cyprus and Malta.

Romania said Sunday its decision to sign the Article 98 immunity accord with the United States did not undermine its loyalty to the European Union.

"It is wrong to speak of a conflict of interest, it is wrong to call into question our loyalty toward membership in NATO or the EU," said Romania‚s Foreign Minister, Mirco Geoana.

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