The US administration is preparing to install a senior official from its Department of Homeland Security in Brussels as a sign of its willingness to improve counter-terrorism co-ordination with the European Union.

Separately, Washington is also expected soon to re-appoint a liaison officer at Europol, the EU police agency. A liaison officer was posted to Europol's headquarters in The Hague shortly after the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11 2001, but the US then caused embarrassment at Europol when it decided to withdraw him within months.