No intention of sending NATO troops to Iraq, says de Hoop Scheffer

Vienna (dpa) - There is no intention of sending NATO troops to Iraq, said the Alliance's Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer during a visit to Vienna on Thursday.

''There's no talk of a NATO mission to Iraq'', he said in an interview with Austrian ORF radio. Earlier, in an address to the Vienna-based OSCE Permanent Council, he had called for closer cooperation between the two organizations.

De Hoop Scheffer pointed out in his interview that NATO was presently running a training academy near Baghdad at the request of the Iraqi government, and training 1,000 Iraqi officers per year.

Also, NATO supplied equipment to the Iraqi army. All this was ''in great harmony'' with the Iraqi government. But there was no debate about stationing NATO soldiers in the country.

The NATO Secretary-General praised Austria's role in the Balkans, specifically Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and in Afghanistan.

Austria also played a significant role in the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP), which could still be expanded, but that depended on Austria itself. ''We absolutely respect Austrian neutrality'', said de Hoop Scheffer.

Calling for ''much better'' NATO-OSCE cooperation earlier, he had stressed the role of both organizations in crisis management and prevention of conflicts.

For instance in Afghanistan, the OSCE worked together with the country in supporting presidential and parliamentary elections, and NATO had taken over leadership of the peace force ISAF.

A further example was the Balkans region, where NATO had created a ''secure environment'' for the activities of the OSCE.

De Hoop Scheffer said that for both NATO and the OSCE, it was important to adapt their institutions to the changed security environment and become more efficient.

He also stressed the importance of a planned international conference in Vienna next week against the financing of terrorism. The conference was being organized by the OSCE and the United States in cooperation with the United Nations and NATO. dpa qu pmc