NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands (AFP) - Agreement on expanding a NATO training mission in Iraq hit last-minute snags notably due to French and others' reservations about details of the accord, NATO officials said.
But NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he hoped a compromise accord could be reached soon -- possibly at a new meeting called for Monday -- to expand the mission in the war-ravaged country.
"As it stands now not all 26 allies are completely happy," de Hoop Scheffer said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defence ministers. "But I'm very optimistic we can reach an agreement very soon on the remaining points."
But he sought to downplay the remaining differences. "I think it will not be on too many substantial issues. We're still discussing financing, force protection," he said.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreed at a summit in Istanbul in June to launch the training mission, after overcoming reservations from Paris which objected to operations under a NATO flag inside Iraq.
NATO already has some 40 soldiers in Iraq who began training army officers in collaboration with the defence ministry in Baghdad. The issue of the command structure led to a stormy debate in July, notably between the United States and France.
Alliance officials said the Alliance's Dutch secretary general has presented member states with a "decision sheet" setting out the details of how the mission will be expanded.
The decision was then put to what is called a "silence procedure," under which it is agreed unless any NATO state raises objections by a given time -- in this case the deadline was midday (1000 GMT) on Friday.
But according to diplomats France and Belgium -- which last year sparked an unprecedented crisis at NATO by opposing plans to help Turkey ahead of the Iraq war -- broke the silence to seek clarifications.
Speaking to reporters after informal talks with her EU counterparts French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said that, apart from France, Belgium, Germany and Spain also had reservations.
She added that they were seeing clarification of questions about funding the operation and the scope of training involved.
De Hoop Scheffer said he has now called a new meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC), NATO's top decision-making body, for Monday afternoon to re-examine the proposals.
"There was a deadline today and as things stand now the Council will discuss my draft decision sheet," said de Hoop Scheffer.
Officials insisted that, despite the last-minute glitches, the Alliance "is nearing agreement" on the Iraq issue. "We are still waiting for a decision soon," said one diplomat.
They say Paris, which refuses to send any forces into Iraq itself, has no problems with the technical aspects of the mission but wants to know what the added value of it would be. Belgium has reservations about funding.
Alliot-Marie said the foreign ministry in Paris was still considering its options. "For the moment it is being discussed with the Quai d'Orsay," she said, referring to the foreign ministry offices.
British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon appeared to assume that an agreement was virtually in the bag. "The NATO training mission is important, and we're delighted that we've got this agreement," he told reporters.
"It's something that we want to see happen," he added, speaking at almost exactly the same time as the NATO chief.