"I see no deep fundamental division here between the perceptions of allies on either side of the Atlantic, or between old and new Europe," he said at a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers.

Earlier, Robertson discussed Iraq and the alliance's upcoming role in Afghan peacekeeping with US President George W. Bush, White House spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"They also discussed briefly the possibility of a NATO role in Iraq," McCormack said, but characterized the discussion as "very preliminary."

Robertson said a role for NATO in Iraq is not on the agenda, though the alliance may participate later.

"I have no doubt that in due course when the situation becomes clearer, then we will discuss it again," he said.

Robertson's visit to Washington comes at a time when the 19-member alliance is still deeply split over Iraq three months after its worst-ever crisis, when France, Belgium and Germany blocked a US request to bolster Turkey's defenses in preparation for the war against Saddam Hussein.

The crisis was eventually defused when the alliance's Defense Policy Committee, which excludes France, agreed to supply Turkey with radar surveillance planes, anti-missile systems and units to protect against biological and chemical attacks.

Washington and London also have not welcomed a proposal Tuesday by war opponents France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium to set up their own command headquarters for military operations outside NATO, saying it would weaken alliance unity.

Robertson dismissed the crisis over Turkey, and said European initiatives to strengthen continental defenses are in line with NATO's transformation goals.

"What began in a blaze of negative publicity turned into a minor success story -- NATO doing its job of protecting its members effectively and without fuss," the former British defense secretary said in his speech to the summit.

The alliance has agreed to take over the leadership of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan this summer, but its members remain divided over Iraq in spite of efforts to ease tensions.

"We've made great progress towards normalising relations between the two countries," which were strained by Berlin's opposition to the war, German Defense Minister Peter Struck said after meeting US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the sidelines of the ministers' gathering, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But both Germany and France still believe the United Nations should have general responsibility for postwar Iraq -- a potential obstacle to US efforts to organize an international peacekeeping force there.

Polish Defense 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 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.

Sources close to Struck's delegation said a German deployment was unlikely, given that the country already has 9,000 troops deployed on missions abroad.

Robertson was later to head to Montreal and Ottawa, where he was to meet Tuesday with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Defense Minister John McCallum.

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