The United States urged Nato on Friday to consider taking a wider role in stabilising Iraq after a sovereign Iraqi government takes office in July but Germany said the alliance had enough on its plate.
"The United States believes the alliance should consider a new collective role after the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said after meeting Nato foreign ministers to mark the alliance's enlargement to 26.
But German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Nato had enough to do with the top priority of expanding security in Afghanistan, peacekeeping in the Balkans and fighting terrorism.
Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said ministers had only a brief discussion on Iraq and it would take a request from a sovereign Iraqi government and a new UN Security Council resolution before the allies might consider a role.
A Nato official said the alliance was unwilling to commit itself to any role because it was struggling to find new forces to bolster security for Afghanistan's September elections.
The US-led invasion of Iraq split Nato last year, with France and Germany leading opposition for several weeks to efforts to provide protection for Turkey before the war.
Since then, Nato has limited itself to providing logistical support for a Polish-led division in south-central Iraq as part of coalition occupation forces.
Asked what role the alliance might take, Powell said: "Ideas right now include Nato taking over one of the sectors, Nato playing a role in helping Iraqi forces get more capable."
He side-stepped a question about whether Washington expected France to join the coalition forces in Iraq once a sovereign government was restored.
"OVERSTRETCH" Fischer reaffirmed Germany's line that it would not block but would not participate militarily in any Nato role in Iraq.
"Nato has enough on its plate with the stabilisation of the Balkans and making a success of the...process in Afghanistan. Plus, we have to fight terrorism. It is an issue of over-stretch," he told a news conference.
Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, three of the seven new east European nations which joined Nato this week, voiced support for a bigger role for the alliance in Iraq, where they and the three Baltic newcomers to Nato already have forces.
The Nato official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters the alliance "wants to be assured that it has enough forces in Afghanistan before agreeing to fresh force generations for Iraq" and had taken a holding position.
"The debate on Iraq has not started," he added.
Powell said he wanted extra troops for Afghanistan over the next few months to shore up security for elections, which have been postponed due to the country's lawlessness.
"We need to twist arms for the immediate programme," the Nato official said. "There's a key sense....that it's better to succeed at one mission than to fail at two."
Nato hopes to deploy five new military teams to assist reconstruction projects and provide security for aid groups by June and wants nations to provide troop reinforcements for about six weeks around the vote.
Eighteen of the 26 Nato states have troops in the US-led force occupying Iraq, including six out of seven new members who were welcomed at a ceremony at Nato headquarters on Friday.
But Spain has threatened to withdraw its 1,300 troops unless the United States defies expectations and goes as far as to give the United Nations "political control" in Iraq.
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