Pentagon number two Paul Wolfowitz and former top US military advisor Richard Perle have fiercely attacked France for blocking NATO accord in the run-up to the Iraq war.

According to US officials, the hardliners now want France to be sidelined at the 19-member alliance, in particular by using military structures in which Paris does not take part, since it pulled out of NATO's integrated military command in 1966.

In February the United States used the 18-member Defence Planning Committee, on which France does not have a seat, to unblock French resistance to a US request to boost Turkey's defences in preparation for war.

France -- along with Germany and Belgium -- sparked one of the most serious crises in NATO's 54-year history by refusing to subscribe to the "logic of war."

"The French have behaved in ways ... that have been very damaging to NATO. I think France is going to pay some consequences, not just with us but with our countries who view it that way," Wolfowitz told the US Senate last week.

Certain Pentagon officials are in favour of using the DPC more regularly at

"I certainly heard people close to the Pentagon say they intend to use the DPC as a way of getting around the French problem," said Charles Grant of the London-based Center for European Reform.

"That is the view of some in the Pentagon, particularly since the blockage over Turkey in February, which really made many people in Washington think NATO a silly organisation which doesn't really matter," he added.

But the margin for manoeuvre appears relatively narrow -- all the more so since the US administration itself appears divided over possible political reprisals against France.

A more frequent use of the DPC would breach the fundamental NATO principle of consensus, and would deprive the Alliance's main decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council (NAC), of its prerogatives.

Despite the rhetoric and continuing rancour, everyone at NATO's Brussels headquarters is in reality stressing pragmatism and trying to pick up the pieces after the Iraq crisis.

Both Americans and French publicly insist that military cooperation between the two countries is on track, a point underlined recently by NATO's new top commander in Europe, US General James Jones.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a marathon day of talks at NATO headquarters on April 3, stopped short of trying to force NATO's hand over Washington's desire for an Alliance role in post-war Iraq.

French President Jacques Chirac meanwhile stressed his "pragmatism" and "commitment to the transatlantic relationship" last week.

In an example of this emerging spirit of conciliation, Paris agreed on Wednesday, despite its initial reservations, that NATO should take command of the ISAF peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

In another sign of detente, a planned meeting of President George W. Bush's top aides to discuss US-French relations was cancelled Thursday after France intervened to stop it, diplomats said.

France's ambassador to Washington managed to persuade the State Department to shelve the meeting, requested by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz to discuss punishing France.

SPACE.WIRE