Struck said the meeting on the sidelines of a seminar of NATO defence ministers would help "a return to normal" in relations between Germany and the United States.

But Struck added that Germany still believed that the United Nations, and not the United States, should have "general responsibility" for post-war Iraq.

Germany sided with France in opposing military force against Iraq and spoke against UN resolutions that would have authorised war. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder angered US President George W. Bush by using anti-US statements during his election campaign last September.

Struck noted that Germany and the United States still have good cooperation "in several places around the world" including Afghanistan, the Balkans and in the US war against terrorism.

Sources close to the German delegation said, however, that it was unlikely that Germany would contribute to an international force in Iraq that the United States and its allies are trying to organise.

Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Smajdzinski told The Washington Times in an interview published Monday that he would like German and Danish troops in the sector of Iraq that his country is expected to patrol.

The sector that will come under Polish control is one of three to four administrative zones that the United States expects to create in its interim administration of Iraq.

Smajdzinski told the Times he would like to see a force of 7,000 troops that would include 1,500-2,200 Polish soldiers, employed in his sector.

Germany already has 9,000 troops deployed on missions abroad, German sources said.

In Warsaw, Smajdzinski's deputy Janusz Zemke said that Asian countries, possibly India, Pakistan or the Philippines, could take part in the stabilization force.

Struck will also involve himself in efforts to "dissipate misunderstandings" after Germany, Belgium, France and Luxembourg last week held a mini-summit in Brussels to discuss setting up a European Defence and Security Union, independent of NATO.

The United States said such a development would weaken NATO unity.

Struck was also to meet US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Bush's national security advisor Condoleezza Rice.

The Washington seminar, organised by the conservative Center for Strategic and International Studies, has assembled 11 defence ministers, mainly from eastern Europe.

SPACE.WIRE