WASHINGTON (AP) -- The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, acknowledged Monday the United States cannot be deterred from deploying a national missile defense despite misgivings among the allies and Russia.

''The United States has the right to deploy,'' Solana told reporters before meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the national security assistant to President Bush.

But on an equally touchy issue, Europe's determination to create its own military corps to respond to crises, Solana was unyielding.

He said the principle was established a decade ago when Bush's father was president and reaffirmed several times at summits in the Clinton years.

''We don't have to create a fuss about something that is not new,'' he said over breakfast in a hotel across the street from the White House.

The two troublesome issues were aired at a two-day conference in Munich, Germany, last weekend amid signs the United States and its allies were being driven apart.

''These are very manageable problems,'' Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., said after the Conference on Security Policy. ''We ought to relax and talk it through.''

Other observers were not so sanguine even though Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered to help the Europeans with a missile defense while the Bush administration proceeds with trying to erect a shield against what it claims are potential threats from North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's national security assistant, Sergei B. Ivanov, said a vast missile defense program would undermine international stability and touch off an arms race, including one in outer space. Europeans also were critical.

Solana, taking a softer tone, said Monday the Europeans wants to get involved in a dialogue with the Bush administration about the program.

And, in a conciliatory gesture, the Spanish diplomat said the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which prohibited a national missile defense, was between the United States and the Soviet Union, not Europe, was revised in 1974 and ''it's not a Bible.''

Powell indicated at his Senate confirmation hearing last month that the administration would approach Russia about changing the treaty to fit U.S. plans and would consider reducing the U.S. arsenal of offensive nuclear weapons.

While acknowledging the United States has the authority to go ahead with an anti-missile defense, Solana said the program ''has consequences that go far beyond it.''

Urging more trans-Atlantic consultation, Solana, a former NATO secretary-general, said, ''We have to start talking and I hope whatever is done is beneficial to the alliance and to the stability of the world.''

Meanwhile, defending the European plan to establish a rapid reaction military force headed by a European commander, Solana said it would not threaten the unity of the NATO military alliance, ''I don't perceive any especially negative attitude'' from the Bush administration, he said.

The force would help avert the sort of ''catastrophe'' that occurred in Bosnia, Solana said, and spare the United States getting involved in every crisis. Besides, he said, ''It is part of the strategic concept of NATO.''

Even so, at Munich, serious questions were raised about the U.S. and European plans.

''The question is, is the Atlantic relationship considered a safety net which puts a floor on the risks under which everyone is free to pursue his own national interests even at the expense of other allies?'' former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked. ''Or is it an organization that is jointly attempting to pursue common objectives?''