led war in Iraq and months of bickering over the reluctance of European allies to contribute more troops to NATO missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer rejected the idea of setting up an expert panel on the organisation's future. Nevertheless, the German proposals do reflect efforts de Hoop Scheffer has already launched to mould NATO into a forum where politics are raised along with military matters. In an internal document sent by de Hoop Scheffer on Monday to NATO ambassadors and obtained by Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the Secretary-General echoed calls by Schroeder to give NATO a stronger political voice. "NATO must become a more political forum, and it must engage more as an alliance in the relevant political bodies," he wrote according to an advance copy of the newspaper's Wednesday edition. He added many NATO defence ministers had agreed at a private dinner last week the organisation was better at words than deeds, and this must be corrected. Schroeder said: "I stand by what I said at the Munich conference." "I have a strong impression that inside NATO and the European institutions there is a greater interest in developing the transatlantic dialogue and giving it a solid foundation," he added.
