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NATO Nears Agreement on Iraq Troop Request

Posted on: Friday, 25 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO nations moved close to an agreement Friday on giving help sought by Iraq's interim leader in training his country's security forces, diplomats said.

Ambassadors from the 26 allies met through the day to draft a reply to Iyad Allawi's request, which asked NATO for aid in rebuilding Iraq's armed forces after the United States hands sovereignty to his government on Wednesday.

Officials said envoys sent a draft agreement back to their capitals for provisional approval by Saturday morning. If no government raises objections, the agreement should be sealed at a summit of alliance leaders Monday and Tuesday in Istanbul.

Diplomats declined to discuss details of the draft text. NATO officials said earlier that the allies would likely offer Allawi training assistance and issue a strong statement of political support to his government.

An agreement would be a boost for the United States, which has pushed for a positive allied response to Allawi's request and wants the summit to back plans to expand NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

"The United States is proposing currently, this month, the most ambitious use of NATO as a multilateral institution in our call that NATO do more in Afghanistan ... and in our proposal that NATO think what it can do to meet its responsibility in Iraq," said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO as talks continued Friday.

However, diplomats were working to define the limits of NATO's help.

Italy has expressed strong support for Allawi's request, and Germany, which is already training Iraqi police, said it would consider extending its program to include the military. However, Berlin stressed that German instructors would not go to Iraq, preferring to offer training outside the country.

Germany and France led European opposition to the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein, and have opposed U.S.-backed calls for NATO to send troops to Iraq.

However, diplomats said they hoped all the allies would accept the training mission once a sovereign Iraqi government was in place.

"NATO should never slam the door in ... this government's face," the alliance's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday.

On Afghanistan, the alliance was expected to approve plans to widen its U.N.-backed peacekeeping mission beyond the capital, Kabul, and the northern city of Kunduz.

After months of delays, officials were confident European allies would offer the necessary troops, planes and helicopters to expand the mission to five more cities in the north.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to attend the NATO meeting Tuesday.

The summit is also set to offer a new program of defense cooperation to Middle Eastern nations, agree to hand over peacekeeping in Bosnia to the European Union and set up permanent NATO diplomatic missions in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

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