NATO's governing board adopted an executive directive finalizing a five-fold increase in staff at the operation in Baghdad but the accord was soured by the refusal of six European nations to allow their NATO officers to participate.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell, attending his last NATO meeting ahead of an outreach visit to Europe by President George W. Bush in February, praised the expansion decision but decried the stance of the six Iraq war foes.

"We think it is a problem," Powell said, maintaining that it was "quite awkward" for NATO officers of any country to be prevented by their governments from taking part in an operation endorsed by the alliance as a whole.

"It is our expectation that when units and indivduals are committed to an international staff they then work in that international staff and become a key part of that international staff," he told reporters.

"When it comes time to perform a mission, it seems to us to be quite awkward for suddenly members in that international staff to say Im unable to go because of this national caveat or national exception," Powell said.

"You are hurting the credibility and the cohesion of such an international staff or organization," he added.

The position adopted by the six -- Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg and Spain, most of which were vehemently opposed to the US-led war in Iraq -- affects about a quarter of the officers based at NATO's two command centers in Mons, Belgium and Norfolk, Virginia.

NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who has spoken out on the matter in the past, was also critical.

"Whenever NATO agrees to have an operation, all NATO allies who have politically agreed with the operation should send the people they have assigned to the international military staff to participate in the operation," he said.

"The discussion goes to the heart of the matter, to the core of NATO and to the core of NATO solidarity," de Hoop Scheffer said.

Although they joined in the consensus to expand the Iraq mission, which will boost allied staff in Baghdad from 60 to 300, none of the six countries involved in the deadlock appeared willing to soften their stance.

"There has been no change of mind, we will send no soldiers to Iraq," German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said, adding that NATO members were made well aware of Berlin's position some time ago and that it should not be a surprise.

On other matters, the council agreed on the need to begin "phase two" of its stabilization mission in Afghanistan but did not hear the concrete pledges of support from European members needed to do so.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization took over the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) last year, and earlier this year expanded it beyond Kabul into the north of the country, notably setting up five provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) there.

Phase two of its strategic plan foresees an expansion into the more remote west of the war-scarred country.

The United States recently offered to transfer two PRTs which it runs in western Afghanistan to NATO -- but only on condition that European allies agree to staff two new PRTs as well as a forward support base to provide supplies.

Washington had hoped to hear definite responses from the Europeans on Thursday but no such contributions were in the offing, although NATO's chief insisted he was confident the expansion would be agreed "early in the new year."

Meanwhile, the NATO meeting also trumpeted a joint declaration with Russia calling for free and fair elections in Ukraine, in what de Hoop Scheffer hailed as "a major breakthrough" in defusing tension between the West and Moscow.

The statement co-signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Western military alliance and Moscow agreed to "work to ensure a free, fair electoral process that reflects the will of the Ukrainian people."

"This is a major breakthrough ... It shows that this is not and this should not be ... an East-West confrontation, it's not an East-West rivalry," said de Hoop Scheffer.

But tensions clearly lingered here too. Lavrov, while saying he was happy with the joint declaration, said that those who "called on Ukraine to join the West (had) incited to violence," without elaborating who he was talking about.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.