Powell Reports Progress With NATO on Iraq

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said key American allies reacted favorably to his first public appeal Thursday to NATO to take a direct role in Iraq’s reconstruction.

At a meeting of foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Powell said the Western security alliance needed to consider “how it might do more to support peace and stability” in the war-torn country.

Diplomats from Denmark, Italy, Spain and Poland, as well as NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, spoke favorably about the idea of a direct role even though the American-led war is among the most divisive issues the alliance has faced in its 54-year history.

Powell said that during talks at alliance headquarters here, no member had spoken against the idea of a mission by NATO to Iraq. Everyone voiced support for at least considering such a proposal, he said.

He also confirmed that he would meet today in Washington with the Israeli and Palestinian proponents of an unofficial peace initiative, known as the Geneva Accord, despite the misgivings of the Israeli government.

In Washington, President Bush called the Geneva Accord “productive” and said it must adhere to the guiding principles he has outlined, including “the emergence of a Palestinian state that is democratic and free.”

The president spoke with reporters Thursday during a brief photo op in the Oval Office with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who is in the United States on a largely private visit.

In Brussels, Powell was focused on a more pressing objective of the administration: to secure more international troops for the mission in Iraq.

Although Powell emphasized that the proposal for NATO’s involvement in Iraq was at an early stage, formal acceptance by the alliance would signal a new degree of political acceptance for the American mission in the struggling nation and would provide highly skilled troops at a juncture when many countries have balked at taking part in a dangerous assignment.

The United States is also prodding alliance members to contribute more to the thinly equipped NATO peacekeeping effort in Afghanistan, to intensify the alliance’s fight against terrorism and to become more active in unstable regions of Central Asia.

The U.S. hopes that the alliance can take control of the international division that patrols a section of south-central Iraq under Polish military leadership. Officials from countries that have large contingents of peacekeepers in Iraq are worried about what will happen when the Poles relinquish command next fall, diplomats said.

France, Germany, Belgium and perhaps other members of the alliance would probably oppose a NATO mission if it was proposed for deployment in the next few months, diplomats said.

But American officials and other supporters are offering the idea for public discussion now because they believe that international opposition to such a role will soften when the U.S. hands over sovereignty next summer to a transitional Iraqi government that has stronger local support.

“Even some of the countries that spoke in favor of a NATO mission, such as Spain, Italy and Denmark, acknowledged that the time is not yet right,” Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel told reporters. His German counterpart, Joschka Fischer, said his nation would not join a mission in Iraq, though it is leading the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

Powell will return to Washington today for his meeting with authors of the Geneva plan, who include Israeli opposition figures and Palestinian moderates. The proposal would have Israel hand over lands it occupied in the 1967 Middle East War, including traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, to Palestinians to create a state alongside Israel.

At his meeting with Bush, King Abdullah said, “We’ve all been working very hard behind the scenes to encourage the Palestinian prime minister [Ahmed Korei] to be able to have the dialogue with the Israelis.”

Korei headed to Cairo on Thursday to meet with leaders of Palestinian factions who were deciding whether to call for a cease-fire in the three-year intifada, or armed uprising, against Israel.

Under the auspices of Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the factions gathered to debate at least two choices: halting all attacks within Israel’s 1967 borders or calling a truce that also bans assaults on Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In his opening remarks, Suleiman reportedly urged the battle-weary factions to take advantage of the presidential campaign in the United States, as well as growing political dissent within Israel, to push for peace. But many of the militants remain wary.

Groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade had pledged to hold their fire during Israeli-Palestinian peace talks over the summer. But the violence never quite ended and the truce eventually broke down, quashing one of the most hopeful periods since the outbreak of the intifada.

Israel has offered no concessions in exchange for a truce, but a senior Israeli official on Thursday hinted at the possibility of reciprocal measures.

“If the Palestinians agree to a cease-fire in Cairo, it’s certainly not out of the question that Israel will agree to restrain its military activity,” Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio.

Times staff writers Edwin Chen in Washington, Megan K. Stack in Cairo and Laura King in Jerusalem contributed to this report.