NATOs Defence Planning Committee (DPC) announced its agreement to a request from President George W. Bush to appoint Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr. as Supreme Allied Commander, Transformation.

Giambastiani, a four-star admiral, is currently serving as the Commander, US Joint Forces Command. He is considered close to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

NATO is undergoing a comprehensive "transformation," sealed at a landmark summit in Prague last November, to deal with post-Cold War and post-September 11 security threats.

Giambastiani's appointment will become effective following final decisions on NATOs military command arrangements to be taken by NATO defence ministers at a meeting in Brussels on June 12-13.

His new "transformation" command will replace the current strategic centre in Norfolk, Virginia. Meanwhile Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), based in Mons, Belgium, will take over command of all NATO military operations on the ground.

The DPC comprises the ambassadors of all members of the 19-member Alliance except France, which withdrew from NATO's integrated military command in 1966.

NATO also agreed its biggest-ever eastward expansion at the Prague summit, and is due to take in seven ex-communist countries as new members next year.

WAR.WIRE