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The 19 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) reaffirmed on Tuesday their participation in Iraq's postwar reconstruction.
In a communiqui released after the first session of a foreign ministers' meeting in Madrid, the Atlantic alliance hailed the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1483, saying the NATO is prepared to contribute to its enforcement.
The communiqui was interpreted by some NATO members as a further step toward the involvement of the alliance in Iraq's postwar reconstruction, sources said, in addition to its support to Poland, which has agreed to head a 7,000-strong international force to take command of one of Iraq's three postwar zones.
The United States and Britain would control the other zones.
US sources said the NATO support to Poland is "the same as that to the Netherlands and Germany in Afghanistan" where they took control of the International Security Assistance Force.
The NATO foreign ministers' meeting, to be closed on Wednesday, is the first NATO ministerial gathering after the Iraq war.
By reaching consensus on the participation in Iraq's reconstruction, the 19 members showed their efforts to renew a sense of unity and put aside their differences over the Iraq war.
France and Germany had strongly opposed the US and British attack against Iraq.
"I think NATO is well on the way to recovery," said US Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2003)
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