The Alliance, due to support Poland in Iraq from July and take command of peacekeeping in Afghanistan in August, could even play a role in a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its chief George Robertson said.

"NATO is bouncing back. NATO has weathered its storms in remarkably good shape," Robertson said at a two-day meeting of ministers from the 19 NATO members and seven states due to join the bloc next year.

"The revitalized and reunited NATO for the 21st century is taking shape quickly and convincingly," he said.

NATO was plunged into one of its deepest crises in its 54-year history in February, after three countries against the war in Iraq - France, Germany and Belgium - blocked accord on supporting Turkey.

The Madrid meeting is the first gathering of Alliance ministers since the end of the Iraq war, and the ministers were keen to stress that they are looking firmly to the future - and to new so-called "out of area" operations.

The most concrete of these so far is in Afghanistan, where NATO is to take over command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) this summer.

"From August, NATO will take the leading role by assuming the strategic coordination, command and control of ISAF," said the ministers in a statement, the first time they had explicitly confirmed their leading role.

The Madrid meeting also welcomed confirmation this week that NATO will support Poland in running a multinational stabilization force in a sector of Iraq.

The Alliance, which asked military planners last month to examine how NATO could help, agreed on Monday to provide support in five defined areas at a meeting on Monday, said a NATO spokesman.

"This is of course a very important decision, very symbolic," Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said, adding: "We are very satisfied."

Warsaw, a key European supporter of the United States during the Iraq war, have been given command of a stabilization force in one sector of Iraq, alongside Britain and US forces.

The five areas are force generation, communications support, coordinating troop and equipment movement, logistics and intelligence, said spokesman Mark Laity in the sidelines of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Madrid.

After Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East turned up on NATO's radar on Monday, after some ministers suggested that NATO could send forces to the region as part of an eventual peace settlement there.

The discussion came after US officials briefed the ministers on the latest peace talks in the region, attended by US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"Some ministers indicated that if these talks were successful .. and if there was a need for some stabilization force in that region then NATO should not rule itself out of that equation," he told reporters.

The two-day NATO meeting is taking stock of the Alliance's "transformation" from a Cold War military bloc to a post-9/11 global security body, in particular the perennial problem of boosting military muscle.

The Madrid meeting also discussed the consequences of a landmark EU-NATO accord struck in December - which has already paved the way for the EU to take over peacekeeping operations from NATO in in Macedonia.

The ministers also broached the perennially thorny question of military capabilities - or the Europeans' lack of them compared to the United States - taking stock of new promises made at the Prague summit.

On a more personal note, the question was also raised - in informal discussions if not on the formal agenda - of who will succeed Robertson when he stands down in December.

WAR.WIRE