France blocks Nato plans to train Iraqi security forces

1.00pm - By STEPHEN CASTLE in Brussels

France yesterday led a clutch of nations blocking Nato plans to train Iraqi security forces.

The 26 Nato allies agreed last month in Istanbul to go ahead with a training programme, but the US and the French remain at odds over the interpretation of the accord. At issue is the extent of any Nato deployment inside Iraq.

Despite three meetings yesterday, ambassadors failed to clinch a deal on the details of the operation, though there was optimism that a compromise can be found by the end of the week.

France was the fiercest critic of the war in Iraq and a row over plans for Nato to protect Turkey from potential attack by Saddam provoked the biggest crisis in the alliance's history.

At the Istanbul summit the French President Jacques Chirac, said that the alliance could offer support to individual nations which want to train Iraqi troops but that "a Nato presence in Iraq" was out of the question.

Germany and Belgium are also unenthusiastic about an alliance mission inside the country but will not stand in the way of the majority.

The temperature has been raised because the US is pushing hard for an early decision and for an ambitious programme of Nato involvement.

"It is not just the French that have concerns," said one Nato official, "I think the US is taking a fairly hardline position."

Nato has already sent one fact-finding mission to the country, and the US wants a second one, due to leave shortly, to be allowed to begin some form of training.

That is being resisted by Paris and Berlin, which argue that the mission should assess safety and decide on where and how the training should take place.

An earlier, 10-strong, fact-finding team has been to Iraq but spent only a few days there. France is also opposed to putting a Nato mission under the operational command of the US-led multinational force in Iraq.

"At the end of the day the French fear that the Americans will be able to transfer responsibilities to Nato because of this unique chain of command," said one Nato diplomat.

Meanwhile France is reluctant to avoid making any show of international support for George Bush's Iraq policy before the Republican Party's pre-election convention, which opens at the end of August.

However the US is growing increasingly impatient with Paris, which it believes is trying to delay decisions and undermine the alliance.

They accuse M Chirac of reneging on a deal over training which was struck before the Istanbul summit.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato Secretary General, has called for a deal to be struck this week and said that training could take place "both inside and outside Iraq".

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Herald Feature: Iraq