Washington wants early NATO decision on Iraq training

BRUSSELS (AFP) Jul 08, 2004
The United States is hoping for an early decision on what form NATO training for Iraqi armed forces will take and has in mind for instructors to be on the ground from this summer on, US NATO envoy Nicholas Burns said Thursday.

"Our expectation is that NATO will see its way to do that this summer," he told journalists.

NATO heads of state and government agreed in Istanbul on June 28 that the North Atlantic Alliance should help with training Iraqi forces.

But the US and France differ on the exact role to be played by the Alliance on the ground in Iraq. France is a member of NATO's political council but not of its integrated military command structure.

Burns said there was no doubt that NATO leaders had already taken the decision "that there is going be a NATO mission in Iraq."

NATO sent a fact-finding team to Iraq on Monday. Its leader US Admiral Gregory Johnson has returned but left a small team in Baghdad for some days.

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