France and Belgium on Friday stalled plans for Nato to launch a training academy for senior Iraqi military officers in Iraq, diplomats and officials said.
They said the two countries, which have feuded with the United States for two years over the US-led invasion of Iraq, wanted clarification on how the mission would operate but expressed confidence an accord could still be reached in days.
"The discussion today is about the details of implementation and financing," French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told reporters at a meeting of EU defence ministers in the Dutch seaside resort of Noordwijk.
The alliance agreed to the mission in July only after a squabble between France and the United States about whether Nato should have a role in the country at all.
France's argument during the height of the tussle was that such a mission could be the thin end of the wedge, inserting Nato into the Iraqi battlefield through a back door.
In Brussels, a Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Belgium also wanted more assurances over who would finance the mission, likely to paid for from a mix of common Nato funding and national financing.
Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer played down differences over the mission.
"I am very optimistic we can reach agreement soon on the remaining points. It is essential this training mission begins as soon as possible," de Hoop Scheffer told reporters at a meeting of EU defence ministers in the Dutch town of Noordwijk.
He said Nato ambassadors would discuss outstanding differences at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.
A deal on training could settle almost two years of tension between the United States and France, backed by Germany, over Nato's role in Iraq that predated the US-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Under a deal worked out among Nato's 26 member nations, the mission would report to the US officer in command of training operations in Iraq, diplomatic sources said.