IRAQ: The outgoing US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, appealed yesterday for Europe to set aside its differences with the United States. However, he criticised European members of NATO over their attitude towards Iraq.
"We are reaching out to Europe and we hope that Europe will reach out to us," Mr Powell said, in an appeal for more European help to stabilise Iraq and Afghanistan, before visiting the headquarters of NATO in Brussels.
Later in the day, Mr Powell accused some of America's European NATO allies of undermining the alliance by refusing to allow staff seconded to it to take part in its military training mission in Iraq.
"When it comes time to perform a mission, it seems to us to be quite awkward for members of that international staff to suddenly say 'I am unable to go'," he told a news conference. "You are hurting the credibility and cohesion (of such an) international staff organisation."
Mr Powell's visit to NATO is likely to be his last before he hands over to his nominated successor, Dr Condoleezza Rice.
NATO sources say that France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Greece will not send any of their staff serving at the alliance to Iraq. These countries dismiss US objections, saying that they made their position clear when the training mission was agreed last June.
"There will be no (French) officers or soldiers in Iraq," the French Foreign Minister, Mr Michel Barnier, told reporters. "Given the current security situation, we think it is more efficient and useful if training takes place outside Iraq."
NATO's secretary-general, Mr Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, welcomed pledges by other European countries, including Poland, Hungary, Norway and the Netherlands, to send more staff to the training mission, which is located within Baghdad's international Green Zone. "The number of personnel will go from 60 to 300, including trainers and support staff," Mr de Hoop Scheffer said.
NATO sources said that the new contributions would bring the total number of trainers in Iraq to almost 100, with the rest acting as support staff. The 26-member alliance also plans to set up a military academy on the outskirts of Baghdad with more trainers, but Mr de Hoop Scheffer said that this would not be ready before early next year.
President George Bush is expected to visit NATO and the EU on February 22nd next in a move to rebuild ties between the US and Europe at the start of his second term.