NATO shifts focus to Turkey

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The United States sought Wednesday to overcome objections by France, Germany and Belgium to NATO preparations in case of an Iraq war. A compromise dealt only with defending Turkey and dropped a request for NATO troops to replace any allied forces sent from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf.\nThe three European countries have been blocking a proposal backed by the United States and 15 other nations to prepare to send anti-missile batteries and surveillance aircraft to protect Turkey from Iraqi reprisals.\nThe United States -- and a growing number of Europeans -- says their opposition threatens NATO credibility.\nNATO diplomats said Wednesday the compromise proposal represented progress. But, they said, the three holdouts still want to link any NATO decision to Friday's report to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's cooperation with weapons inspectors.\n"Our position has not changed," said Francois Rivasseau, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman. He said supporting NATO action now could "prejudice decisions that are up to the Security Council" on how to deal with Iraq.\nThe compromise proposal was presented Wednesday morning after intensive overnight negotiations. The United States agreed to eliminate two requests from its original proposal: that NATO fill in for European troops if they are moved from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf, and that European forces step up guard duties at U.S. bases in Europe.\nAlliance officials said both those issues were being dealt with at a bilateral level -- Germany, for example, deployed hundreds of soldiers at U.S. bases last month.\n"We entered a new phase of the discussions," U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns said. But, he added, "It may take some time to get to the end."\n"We believe that we now have elements which can help up bring the discussion forward," NATO spokesman Yves Brodeur said. "The proposal now specifically addresses the defensive needs of Turkey."\nThe 19 ambassadors met for 90 minutes Wednesday morning to receive the proposals, then ended the meeting for more negotiations before another session later that day.\nThe proposed change would leave the plan focused entirely on Turkey's request for help through the dispatch of AWACS radar planes, Patriot anti-missile batteries and specialized units to counter poison gas or germ warfare attacks.\nGerman Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he believed Turkey's request would eventually be met. "What has been requested, as far as Germany is concerned, will be granted," he said at a summit in the Canary Islands with the Spanish prime minister.\nFrance, Germany and Belgium have said they are not opposed to defending Turkey, but that launching preparations to do so now would send the signal that an Iraq war is inevitable. Of the rift in NATO, Schroeder said, "I hope we can resolve it."\nNATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson was hoping for an agreement that would start to patch up the alliance's worst internal dispute in years.\nFor almost a month, the holdouts have blocked the start of military planning to help Turkey, saying the move would send a signal that NATO is engaged on an irreversible path of war and would undermine U.N. efforts to end the Iraq crisis peacefully.\n"The alliance is breaking itself up because it will not meet its responsibilities," Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Tuesday.\nThe division in the alliance threatens U.S. efforts to rally support in the U.N. Security Council for military action against Iraq. France and Germany, joined by Russia and China, are seeking more time for stronger U.N. inspections in a proposal opposed by Washington and London.\nNATO's dispute intensified Monday when Turkey invoked the alliance's mutual defense treaty to ask for assistance, but was rebuffed by the three. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic said the holdouts sent a dangerous message of disunity to the Iraqi leadership.\n"You cannot say Turkey doesn't feel threatened," said Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in The Hague, Netherlands. "There is one man and one regime that can profit from this (division): Saddam Hussein"