08 February 2004	Sunday	16 Zilhaj 1424

MUNICH, Feb 7: Germany opened the door on Saturday for Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to take a stabilization role in Iraq, but voiced serious doubts and ruled out deploying its own troops.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer - returning one year on to a security conference at which he had clashed with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over Washington's plans to invade Iraq - said Berlin felt vindicated in its opposition to the invasion.

"Germany feels that events have proven the position it took at the time to be right," he told the conference in the German city of Munich. "We were not and are still not convinced of the reasons for war."

Mr Rumsfeld was again in the audience on Saturday, but Mr Fischer took a conciliatory stand on the need for Europe and the United States to work together for stability across the Middle East.

"Regardless of our opinion of the war, we have to win the peace together because otherwise we will lose together, we have to look forward," he said.

The United States and several other allies are keen for the 19-nation Nato alliance to take command of a Polish-led force of some 9,000 troops in a swathe of south-central Iraq after sovereignty is returned to the people of the country on July 1.

But they are not pressing hard for fear of rekindling tensions over the invasion, which triggered one of the deepest crises in the alliance's 54-year-old history, and diplomats say a decision will be delayed until Nato's Istanbul summit in June.

France and Germany are the most reticent about putting the alliance into Iraq.-Reuters