Despite opposition from France and Germany, NATO will discuss a US proposal for unifying the command of US-commanded combat mission and NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan at the next informal meeting of defense ministers, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters in Brasov, Romania, Wednesday.

The US government floated the unification idea to enable NATO forces to carry out combat operations in the land-locked country.

De Hoop Scheffer said that if the US side can provide concrete plans, NATO's defense ministers will discuss the proposal at their next meeting in Nice, France, in February 2005.
 
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said later in the day that France did not think the US proposal was a good idea, because unifying the command of two very different missions can be counter-productive.

Earlier, her German counterpart Peter Struck also rejected the US proposal.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2004)