Bush seeks NATO's help in peacekeeping mission

Democrats also favor more NATO involvement in Iraq.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With a help-wanted letter from Iraq's new prime minister in hand, President Bush is appealing to NATO to help quell violence that has escalated as next week's transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis nears.
Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, wrote a one-page letter to allied governments asking for training and technical and other assistance, but not troops. Bush, who spoke with Allawi on Wednesday, will discuss the request with allied leaders at the NATO summit next week in Istanbul, Turkey.
At a swearing-in ceremony for the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John D. Negroponte, Secretary of State Colin Powell implied anew that there may be additions to the 32-nation coalition that is engaged in peacekeeping and fighting insurgents in Iraq.
"Dozens of nations have contributed to and sacrificed for the sake of a new and free Iraq," Powell said Wednesday. "And those contributions will continue. I know that the Iraqi people will welcome new partners."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher noted that 16 of the 26 NATO countries already are in the U.S.-led coalition.
More assistance
At the White House, a senior administration official briefing reporters on the NATO summit also hinted that more NATO members could offer assistance soon. "That's what NATO will be debating in the next couple days -- how we can respond to that, what form that response takes," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Initially, the Bush administration was seeking more troops from NATO heavyweights like France and Germany. Both have emphatically declined to send soldiers. The administration, which is claiming a new spirit of cooperation with European nations that opposed the war, now is urging its allies to help in other ways.
Democrats, who long have wanted more nations involved in Iraq, are speaking out in favor of more NATO involvement, too.
Sen. Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday that Bush should present allied leaders with a plan next week to send a NATO force to Iraq. Biden, who was in Baghdad recently for talks with U.S. and Iraqi officials, said a NATO force could take on one of three roles -- protecting Iraq's borders, supplementing Polish troops in the south or guarding U.N. personnel from attack.
Criticism
The Delaware senator said Bush was planning to "pull back" in Iraq after sovereignty is returned to Iraqis on Wednesday and that this would create a vacuum that Iraqi security forces are incapable of filling.
"I think it is a political decision, and I think it is a mistake," Biden said.
"We are playing into the hands of the insurgents," Biden said. But, he added, the Pentagon wants to get U.S. troops "out of harm's way" and the administration "seems to be internally paralyzed."
Campaigning in California, Bush's Democratic presidential opponent, Sen. John Kerry, said the NATO summit may be the last chance the United States has to secure additional resources from its allies. "It is clearer than ever that additional troops and resources would support our mission in Iraq, relieve the pressure on our troops and improve the interim Iraqi government's opportunity for success," Kerry said. "Like all Americans, I can only hope it is not too late."