In a confidential letter to the 26 NATO ambassadors dated Monday summing up the discussion at an Alliance defense ministers meeting last week, De Hoop Scheffer said that the body had to sharpen its political profile, German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported in an advance copy of its Wednesday issue.

"NATO must become a political forum and must engage more closely as an alliance in the relevant political forums if we want to make better use of political will," he wrote.

He said that NATO must cooperate more with the United Nations and that he would present a list of reform recommendations soon.

Schroeder made waves at a security conference in the southern city of Munich last weekend with a similar assessment, saying that NATO "is no longer the primary venue where transatlantic partners discuss and coordinate strategies".

In a speech read out by Defense Minister Peter Struck because he was ill, Schroeder urged the European Union and the United States to set up a panel of independent senior officials to analyze new ways to boost transatlantic ties.

The panel should report back by the beginning of 2006. "The necessary conclusions could then be drawn," the speech said.

NATO spokesman James Apparthurai told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, however, said De Hoop Scheffer still rejected Schroeder's call for a blue-ribbon panel to develop a reform plan.

"Such a panel would not help. The key thing is that the nations themselves use NATO more than now," he was quoted saying.

Reportedly caught offguard by Schroeder's comments, De Joop Scheffer insisted at the Munich conference that the Alliance was "alive and kicking" and doubted whether an independent review of the body would produce anything new.

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