By Janet McEvoy

BRUSSELS, Nov 7 (Reuter) - European Union aid ministers, stung by French criticism of "spineless inaction" in the plight of 1.2 million refugees stranded in eastern Zaire, struggled on Thursday to find a joint response to the deepening human crisis. While aid agencies like the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees who have seen the deteriorating situation in Africa's Great Lakes region on the ground left the 15 ministers in little doubt as to the need to act, the question was how? "The question is there, what's wanted is the answer. We are talking about one million refugees who need assistance," said the European Union's Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Emma Bonino. She is pushing at the meeting for safe corridors into the region to facilitate food deliveries and the return of refugees caught by the fighting between Tutsi rebels and the Zairean army in the region. The EU's special envoy to the Great Lakes region Aldo Ajello said conditions were right for at least 900,000 Rwandan refugees to return to their count

ry, although some might not choose to return and could not be forced to. "At least 900,000 could go back without any problems and the rest we will see," he told a news conference. But diplomats said France remained alone with Spain in having offered troops to take part in a neutral force to come to the refugees aid. The 15-nation EU has offered to help create and finance an African force, but seven regional leaders meeting in Nairobi on Tuesday said they wanted the United Nations to create a "neutral force" to come to the rescue of the refugees. Shortly before the Brussels meeting started, France accused the international community of being spineless on Wednesday as it vented its frustration at the poor response to a proposed multinational force to help avert a refugee disaster in Zaire. "I'm knocking on doors, asking if anyone is prepared to assume his responsibilities. The answer is 'Could you come back tomorrow', or 'We might lend an aircraft'," Foreign Minister Herve de Charette told LCI television. But

British Overseas Development Minister Lynda Chalker said the reproach was "daft", "He ought to find out what the facts are before he accuses people of things," she told reporters on arriving. The United Nations Refugee chief said that such a "neutral force" sent by the international community should be empowered to arrest and disarm militias and other groups operating in lawless eastern Zaire. "I would like to see them empowered to do that," Sadaka Ogata told Reuters. The UNHCR has been widely criticised for feeding and sheltering the leaders of the Hutu-inspired genocide of up to one million Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Several of them fled, along with hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees into eastern Zaire after the defeat of their government. Ogata said it had not been possible to arrest and detain many of the known perpetrators in the camps without causing massive unrest that weak local authorities were unable to deal with. Irish Development Aid Minister Joan Burton, who presided the meeting, said the key

aim was to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and creating "an unsustainable camp situation" which would destabilise the region.