NICE, France, Feb 9 (AFP) - At least half a dozen NATO nations have offered help for Iraqi security forces, US officials said Wednesday, as they pressed their drive to tighten allied ranks split by the 2003 US-led invasion.
With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visiting NATO headqarters in Brussels and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld due to meet his counterparts in France, the Americans claimed success in repairing bruised relations.
Rice, nearing the end of an eight-nation tour of Europe, said NATO foreign ministers had "the best discussion of Iraq that we have had as an alliance since the Saddam Hussein regime fell and, in fact, well before that."
NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the ministers agreed the 26-member grouping had "turned a corner" on Iraq since last month's watershed elections for an Iraqi national assembly.
A senior State Department official, who asked not to be named, said six or seven NATO countries offered Wednesday to provide assistance for training Iraqi security forces to combat a stubborn insurgency.
Another half dozen said they were considering making a contribution, either of trainers in country, outside of Iraq or through a special trust fund set up to fund such projects.
"I think there was a kind of coming together (on) the common purpose that the Iraqi people have given us to support their historic turn for the better," Rice told a news conference in Brussels.
Officials said about 100 NATO trainers were in Iraq under a decision taken by a summit last June. The current goal was to turn out some 1,000 trained Iraqis a year but they wanted to speed the rhythm.
Rumsfeld appeared cautiously optimistic the elections had opened the way for European nations to set aside the bitter differences over the US invasion to help train and equip the Iraqi forces.
The elections and the massive turnout by voters braving violence and threats "ought to help," he said. "On the other hand it's still dangerous there. That's a factor that countries take into account, I'm sure."
Rumsfeld spoke to reporters in Nice on the eve of an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers that will consider US appeals for more help in the form of money, equipment or training for Iraqi security forces.
Countries that opposed the war have refused to allow their officers to deploy to Iraq, which stymied a NATO training program for Iraqi officers that allied leaders agreed to last year.
But some are now offering to train Iraqis outside the country. Germany is training Iraqi officers in the United Arab Emirates, and France has offered to train some 1,500 Iraqi gendarmes in Qatar.
Spain, which withdrew its forces from Iraq last year after a socialist government took office, said Wednesday it was prepared to train Iraqi soldiers in mine-clearing in Spain and provide instruction for Iraqi police.
Rumsfeld expected more offers to come in. With momentum growing for Iraq's peaceful transition to a representative system, he said, "I think people will increasingly want to be a part of that."
The US defense chief said the informal meeting in Nice also will discuss ways to reform of the alliance, including restrictions that individual member countries place on forces they have been committed to NATO missions.
Six anti-war countries -- Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Luxembourg and Greece -- applied the principle of "national caveats" to bar their officers on NATO headquarters staff from doing training in Iraq, US officials said.
Rumsfeld likened it to a basketball team that practices together but is told some members can't play in the game.
"Our thought is look, Iraq is Iraq, let's set that aside and look forward," Rumsfeld said. "I'm more interested in the future of NATO."
Although no formal decisions will be taken in Nice, the informal discussions will set the stage for a NATO summit in Brussels on February 22.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed confidence this week that the allies would reach agreement on training Iraqi security forces at the summit.
"I hope that we will see some of the countries that haven't been involved either in the conflict or its aftermath involved in that," he said.
The appeal for help came as the US military was making a major push to prepare the 136,000 Iraqi forces to assume a greater share of the security burden from coalition combat forces.
Rumsfeld said they have been conferring with coalition countries that provided troops in Iraq but now want to scale back. He said some would provide money, others equipment.
On another front, NATO defense ministers were expected to trumpet a decision to expand the 8,300-member NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
NATO countries are expected to offer to lead two more of the provincial teams in western Iraq and take over two others from US forces, the official said. That would raise the total to 21, nine of them under NATO leadership.

02/09/2005 20:49 GMT - AFP