German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder stood by his call for an overhaul of NATO on Tuesday despite the dismay and disapproval it earned at a transatlantic security conference last weekend. Germany wants a panel of experts to present ideas on revamping the 26-nation alliance and wants it to become a forum for discussion of non-military issues, including areas of dispute across the Atlantic. "That some people at the conference itself may have held a somewhat different view is something I can fully understand," Schroeder told a news conference after meeting the president of the European Commission in Brussels. "But I really believe that it contributes to a strengthening of NATO and transatlantic relations if we speak more openly on political issues than we have tended to in the past." His suggestion went down badly at the meeting of international defence officials in Munich, Germany, and dismayed NATO officials preparing a Feb. 22 summit, the centrepiece of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Europe. --MORE 2340 Local Time 2040 GMT
