NATO will start work to increase its military presence in Turkey after the alliance broke a month-long deadlock and circumvented objections to preparations for a possible US-led war against Iraq.
The deal took 13 hours for NATO ambassadors to reach yesterday, and France was not in the room because Nato Secretary General Lord Robertson had to take the issue to NATO's Defence Planning Committee - on which Paris has no seat - to bypass its resistance.
France is not included on the Defence Planning Committee because it withdrew from the integrated military structure of the alliance in 1966. The forum was used to get round French objections during the 1991 Gulf War when NATO sent its Allied Command Europe Mobile Force to southeastern Turkey.
Planning will now start for the possible deployment of AWACS surveillance planes, Patriot air defence missiles and anti-chemical and anti-germ warfare units to Turkey, which would be on the frontline in a war against Iraq.
Belgium and Germany had held out until yesterday, with France arguing it was premature for the alliance to take steps that could imply acceptance of military action while UN weapons inspectors were still trying to disarm Iraq peacefully.
The trio's stand had worsened relations across the Atlantic and within Europe on how to deal with Iraq.
Paris, which has called for more time and a reinforced inspection regime in Iraq, remained defiant at NATO.
"Turkey does not face any threats at the moment," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said. "We have . . . bilaterally indicated to Turkey that we will of course offer every guarantee we can. So there is no ambiguity towards Turkey, there is no lack of solidarity"
In a move diplomats said may have been designed to avoid an impression that Paris was isolated, France, Germany and Belgium issued a joint statement immediately after the NATO meeting. They said Baghdad must disarm but war must be a last resort.
"In particular, they underline that the use of force can only be the last resort and that not all options offered by (UN Security Council resolution) 1441 have, as yet, been fully exploited," the three countries said.
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said Belgium had persuaded its allies to agree on wording saying that any help for Turkey must be purely defensive and must "not be a first step in the preparations for a war".