Copyright 2003 Guardian Newspapers Limited  
The Guardian (London)
February 17, 2003
SECTION: Guardian Home Pages, Pg. 9

LENGTH: 559 words

HEADLINE: Threat of war: France snubbed as Nato strikes Turkish deal

BYLINE: Ian Black in Brussels

BODY:
Nato last night sidestepped French opposition to approve plans to defend Turkey in case of war with Iraq, but Europe's bitter divisions face cruel public exposure at today's emergency EU summit.

Alliance officials said a deal had finally been done after a day of gruelling negotiations in Nato's defence planning committee - of which France is not a member.

Germany and Belgium, the other members of Nato's "gang of three", dropped their objections in return for guarantees that sending surveillance planes and missile batteries to Turkey did not mean war, and an explicit reference to UN efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully.

"Alliance solidarity has prevailed," said Lord Robertson, Nato's secretary general, relieved at the end of a highly damaging crisis. "We have been able collectively to overcome the impasse."

France is not a member of the defence committee because it withdrew from the integrated military structure of the alliance in 1966.

But breaking Nato's deadlock after a highly divisive month will not necessarily mean an easier EU summit in Brussels today, as most member states, stunned by the massive weekend demonstrations against war, seek more time for UN weapons inspections.

Tony Blair will spend just a few hours in talks over dinner with his 14 fellow EU leaders, including Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroder, leading opposition to military action against Iraq. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, will be there too.

Mr Blair's weekend shift to explicit talk of "regime change" in Baghdad will make his position more isolated, as will the rapidly receding chances of securing a second UN security council resolution, European diplomats said.

Rarely has an EU summit been preceded by such gloom and foreboding.

Greece, holder of the union's rotating presidency, has warned that failure to speak with one voice could mean a "deep crisis".

Mr Blair has the support of Spain, Italy, Portugal and Denmark, but governments there also face angry public opposition. And all other member states have been reinforced in their conviction that the case for military action has not yet been made.

"In cities across Europe, people were clearly showing that they did not want war," said Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian prime minister. "I hope this . . . will help the EU to find a common position."

Many consider the event ill-conceived and badly timed.

"Not many people who will be sitting around the table will really want to be there," one Brussels diplomat said. "It's Greece's prerogative to do this if it feels the union is falling apart," said another, "but it's really very hard to see what can be achieved."

The fear is that a public display of disunity will make a mockery of European pretensions to having a common foreign policy. Greece has not even distributed a draft text for the customary summit declaration.

The most that can be achieved is a repeat of the lowest common denominator conclusion agreed by EU foreign ministers last month. But that was quickly overtaken by a pro-American declaration by the so-called "gang of eight" -five current EU members, including Britain and Spain, and three eastern European candidate countries.

The incoming members, angry that they have not been invited to the summit, are to be briefed separately by Greece tomorrow.



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