NATO Defense Chiefs Return to Munich

NATO defense and foreign ministers will gather in Munich on Friday to discuss the lingering fallout from the Iraq war and the future direction of the alliance. It will be the 40th annual meeting for the German security conference.

The big names of the defense world, an estimated 250 officials including Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld are due to attend, will use the informal get-together to address Transatlantic relations, the future of NATO, and current developments in the Middle East.

They will also likely to take the opportunity to discuss extending the Alliance's role in Afghanistan while in the Bavarian capital, according to diplomats in Brussels.

Iraq situation will again dominate agenda

But the main focus will undoubtedly be the situation in Iraq, even more so now inquiries have been launched into intelligence failures in the United States and Britain regarding the lack of evidence in the search for weapons of mass destruction a year after the war began.

The U.S. delegation is also likely to continue with its pressure to get NATO to play a role in Iraq as part of Washington’s current initiative to solicit wider contributions from its member states.

Last year's Munich conference was a highly tense affair with officials from Washington, Paris and Berlin on edge as a UN Security Council vote on a new Iraq resolution loomed ominously near. Rumsfeld and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer famously clashed at the event and will meet again on Friday with hopefully less static in the air between them.

Security conference host Horst Teltschik told reporters in Munich that some reconciliation is likely. "I get the impression that the Americans want to give us a sign that they are prepared to talk so that both sides can get back to a 'normal' relationship."

New NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said last week that the Alliance, which is supporting the Polish-led division in Iraq, is ready and able to do the job. "If the question comes, it goes without saying that I'm very much in favour of a NATO role," he told journalists, before adding: "It's too early to say exactly what that role will be."

Despite making favourable noises in the direction of the United States in the form of low-key discussions, most NATO officials remain resolute that no action will be taken before sovereignty is transferred from the U.S.-appointed interim leadership to the Iraqis, a move that has been pencilled in for June.

ISAF's Afghan mission to be addressed

The defense ministers will also consider the success of its continuing mission in Afghanistan. When the alliance took over command last August of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) it was NATO's first mission outside Europe. Since then, the command of the mission, which has until now been centered on the capital Kabul, has been rotated between member countries, with Canada currently in control.

NATO wants to extend ISAF's operations beyond the capital Kabul, notably using German troops, but it is having trouble with resources. "I think that there is political will, but translating it into terms of concrete forces on the ground is more difficult and that is our challenge" said Britain's ambassador to NATO Peter Ricketts in a press conference in Brussels this week.

Eurocorps ready to go

The landscape of NATO’s role in Afghanistan is likely to change further after officials announced on Wednesday that the five-nation Eurocorps army is ready to take the lead in the Afghan peacekeeping mission later this year. The Eurocorps was recognized in 2002 as a NATO high readiness force and has already carried out peacekeeping duties in Kosovo and Bosnia.

With plans to be released and confirmed in the coming days, the 60,000-strong force -- made up of troops from Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg -- would more than likely be ready to assume control of the Kabul-based mission by the summer. It was not immediately clear how many of its soldiers would leave for Afghanistan, as part of the 5,500-strong ISAF.

Ministers from the five Eurocorps nations are scheduled to meet on the margins of the Munich meeting to discuss taking on the headquarters role.

Washington calls for NATO engagement in Mid-East

Elsewhere at the Munich conference, officials will analyze the possibilities of NATO involvement in the Middle East -- a topic that could both provide grounds for transatlantic consensus but may also be a source of further tensions.

The United States is eager for NATO to engage in the Middle East to help build regional stability, and around six Middle East and northern African nations, including Israel and Egypt, are being invited to the Alliance summit in Istanbul in June.

Observers expect lively discussion to be generated by the attendance of several Middle East delegations in Munich, discussions on developments in Iran, Israel's "security fence" in and around the West Bank and its decision to dismantle some Jewish settlements.

The fireworks may not be solely reserved for the conference either. Protests are expected and around 21 rallies have been planned before the meeting finishes on Sunday with some 4,000 police being mobilized in Munich. The United States are so concerned that the protests may turn violent that Washington has urged U.S. citizens around Munich to be vigilant for possible unrest.