ROME - Italy said after talks with the US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, yesterday that it was confident France could accept a compromise deal over who should command NATO forces in southern Europe.
The Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, said a proposal to defer a decision on the command for at least five years had already been accepted by the rest of the alliance.
NATO's southern command, covering the volatile Mediterranean region and based in the Italian port of Naples, is led by an American admiral. The divisive debate over France's demand that Washington hand over or share the command with Europe had jeopardised an earlier pledge by Paris that its forces would rejoin NATO's military structure after an absence of more than 30 years.