Scheffer (C) is expected to embark on a Mideast tour (AFP)

BRUSSELS, April 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is set to hold talks with Arab Mediterranean countries over the controversial U.S. “Greater Middle East Initiative”.

Welcoming seven new members into the Alliance Friday, April 2, NATO’s Foreign Ministers saw eye to eye on the importance of the talks with the member states of the Mediterranean Dialogue, comprising Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia in addition to Israel, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Citing a NATO official, who requested anonymity, AFP said the top diplomats agreed to set stage for a Middle Eat tour by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. The official would not reveal the tour’s date.

NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue was initiated in 1994 by the North Atlantic Council.

The Dialogue reflects the Alliance's view that security in Europe is closely linked to security and stability in the Mediterranean.

In the courtyard of NATO's Brussels headquarters, the flags of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia were raised Friday, extending the security umbrella of the Alliance to Russia.

The United States, the main architect of the ‘Greater Middle East’, claims the project aims to encourage democratic reform and economic opening in the Arab world.

Those accepting the reforms will receive support and preferential treatment from Washington and its main western allies.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney spoke of the reform initiative last January in the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

“Our forward strategy for freedom commits us to support those who work and sacrifice for reform across the greater Middle East,” he said then.

Many Arab states, including two heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt, rebuffed any reform plans “imposed on Arab and Islamic countries from outside ”.

Iraq Role

“The U.S. believes the alliance should consider a new collective role after the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty,”

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell seized on the enlargement ceremony to urge anew NATO to play a wider role in Iraq after a handover of power to Iraqis by the first of July.

“The United States believes the alliance should consider a new collective role after the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty,” Reuters news agency quoted Powell as speaking at a press conference in Brussels.

Asked what role the alliance might take in Iraq, Powell said: “Ideas right now include NATO taking over one of the sectors, NATO playing a role in helping Iraqi forces get more capable”.

The U.S. Senate last July unanimously approved a measure seeking NATO and U.N. support in Iraq.

But Germany and France struck the discordant note, balking at the U.S. appeal.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said NATO was already threatened with “overstretch” and should concentrate on its priority peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, the Balkans and fighting terrorism, Reuters said.

New French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said NATO was “simply not the right place where decisions should be prepared or taken concerning the situation in Iraq after July 1, when a legitimate government is established”.

The NATO chief said also said it would take a request from a sovereign Iraqi government and a new U.N. Security Council resolution before the allies might consider a role.

Eighteen of the 26 NATO states have troops (mainly symbolic) in the U.S.-led force occupying Iraq, including six out of the seven new members, according to Reuters.

Spain, however, threatened last month to pull out its troops of the occupied countries by June 30, when the U.S.-led occupation authorities would relinquish power to Iraqis.

The invasion of Iraq split NATO last year with France, Germany and Belgium vigorously opposing the war without a U.N. mandate.

France and Belgium had vetoed U.S. demands including a package of military support for Alliance member Turkey to wage the war.