The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) hopes to finalize its plan to train Iraqi security forces this week, NATO sources said Monday.  

NATO ambassadors are expected to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the training, the sources said.

However, France wants to slow things down, arguing for only the dispatch of another NATO fact-finding mission, said the sources.

The alliance agreed at a summit last month in Istanbul, Turkey, to offer training to the Iraqi forces.

The United States had hoped that NATO would assume a major military role in Iraq, perhaps by taking over the multinational division currently run by Poland. France and Germany both said they would not send military instructors to Iraq, preferring to train Iraqi officers outside the country.

Sixteen NATO nations have sent troops to join coalition forces in Iraq, but opposition led by France and Germany has prevented the alliance from taking a collective role there.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2004)