Germany and NATO are engaged in an unseemly tug-of-war over the future of Berlin's Defence Minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, who is hotly tipped to become the western alliance's next secretary-general. Most of NATO's 19 member states want Mr Scharping to take the job but the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, insists that his Defence Minister is indispensable.
Mr Scharping yesterday repeated his intention of remaining in Berlin but he acknowledged that the speculation surrounding his future was flattering.
"It is indeed an honour to be considered suitable and capable of serving as NATO's secretary-general, but I have taken on a task in German politics and I want to fulfil it," he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Mr Javier Solana steps down as NATO Secretary General this autumn to become the EU's new foreign policy co-ordinator.
According to a report to be published the news magazine Der Spiegel today, the US is exerting great pressure on Mr Scharping to change his mind - and on Mr Schroder to let him go. Washington apparently regards the other leading contenders to for the job - the British Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, Belgium's former Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene, and the Danish Defence Minister, Mr Hans Haekkerup - as "politically too lightweight or inexperienced".
Three other candidates - the former British Defence Ministers, Mr Malcolm Rifkind and Mr Michael Portillo and Germany's former Defence Minister, Mr Volker Ruhe - would be acceptable to Washington but are regarded as unlikely to succeed.
Mr Rifkind does not want the job, Mr Portillo is perceived as being too right-wing and Mr Ruhe wishes to remain in Germany to pursue his own political ambitions.
US diplomats believe the chancellor may yet be persuaded to part with Mr Scharping, not least because such a move would open the way for a cabinet reshuffle in time for the new parliamentary session in September, but the Defence Minister, who saw his popularity soar during NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, seems determined to remain in German politics.
"If Schroder comes unstuck, he wants to be Schroder's successor. That's why he won't say yes," said Mr Paul Breur, the defence spokesman of the opposition Christian Democrats.
Mr Scharping (51) led the Social Democrats to defeat at the hands of Dr Helmut Kohl in the federal election of 1994 but he remains a powerful figure within the party.
