Interim Iraqi leader Iyad Allawi has called on Nato to stay the course in his insurgency-hit country and has told alliance nations their support will help democracy spread across the Middle East.
The 26-nation organization agreed earlier this year to set up a military academy outside Baghdad after overcoming misgivings from France and other opponents of the US-led war about whether Nato should have a role in Iraq at all.
"We are really very happy and appreciative of what Nato has been doing," the interim prime minister told Nato ambassadors at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels today.
"We look towards Nato for continued support and continued engagement. "A stable, peaceful, strong . . . democratic Iraq would spill over to the whole region and create a much more stable and peaceful region. That is why we . . . believe very strongly that Nato should provide help and continue to support us in our bid to build democracy, the rule of law and human rights in Iraq."
Nato's academy will complement a much larger US-led operation whose goal is to train some 150,000 security personnel before Iraq's national elections, which are due in January.
The mission also envisages the alliance co-ordinating offers of military equipment from both Nato and non-Nato countries to the Iraqi security forces.
Mr Allawai was due to go on from Nato to a summit of European Union leaders, some of whom expressed dismay when - on a visit to Rome yesterday - he described states that opposed the war to oust Saddam Hussein as "spectators".