NATO to talk Afghan tactics, debate leader

NATO leaders were to hold formal strategy talks Saturday as their 60th anniversary meeting went into a second and final day amid disagreement over the future secretary general of the alliance.

US President Barack Obama was the star of Friday's opening festivities, and banged the drum for his new Afghan war strategy, but not even his charisma could persuade the 28 members to agree on a new leader for the organisation.

Most of the allies are thought to back Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to take on the post in July, and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel had pushed publicly for his appointment to be agreed Friday.

But Turkey was angered by Rasmussen's failure to sanction Danish cartoonists who mocked the Prophet Mohammed and to close down a Denmark-based television channel which Ankara says is a mouthpiece of Kurdish separatist rebels.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai confirmed no agreement had been reached on Friday, when the leaders met over dinner in the German spa town of Baden-Baden, but said talks would continue Saturday in the nearby French city of Strasbourg.

"We always arrive at consensus at NATO. We will arrive at consensus on this issue as well ... We will get there, this alliance always gets there," he said.

Despite his apparent confidence, however, the rift seemed real.

"I believe that Mr. Rasmussen would be an excellent choice. If we choose him he would be a strong secretary general," Merkel said at a joint news conference with Obama, at which she called for rapid agreement.

In Istanbul, however, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling party has Islamist roots, urged NATO to find an alternative candidate.

"Why do we have to stick to a single name? Aren't there other alternatives? We wish to find another person with whom the issue will be settled," he said.

Aside from finding a successor to current secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the 60th anniversary summit will be dominated by Afghanistan, where Obama is pushing for a renewed push to defeat an Al-Qaeda-backed insurgency.

There are 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, mostly under NATO command, battling the Taliban rebels, whose tenacious rebellion is spreading from the rugged and lawless tribal regions around the border with Pakistan.

Obama has decided to send 21,000 extra US troops and is considering deploying 10,000 more, while asking Europe to contribute by providing more soldiers as well as civilian support staff to train the police.

Some nations, notably Britain, have offered to send temporary reinforcements to secure the presidential elections in August.

But Obama urged Europe to follow him in committing to a longer-term surge in troop numbers as the continent was more at risk from Al-Qaeda militants who have taken refuge in Afghanistan.

"It is probably more likely that Al-Qaeda would be able to launch a serious terrorist attack in Europe than in the United States," Obama warned, addressing an invited audience in Strasbourg.

"We would like to see Europe have much more robust defence capabilities, he said, adding that Europe "should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone."

Protest organisers, who regard NATO as an imperialist and warlike organisation, have called for tens of thousands more demonstrators to converge on Saturday's summit finale.





show by Swiss National Circus Knie. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann