OUTGOING DANISH prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has pledged to tackle Muslim reservations about his character that almost derailed his appointment as Nato secretary general.
Mr Rasmussen (56) stood down as prime minister in Copenhagen yesterday, a day after his appointment at a Nato summit in Strasbourg.
“I made clear I will reach out to the Muslim world and I will make sure [Nato] will co-operate closely with Turkey,” he said, expressing “total understanding” for Turkish concerns that held up his appointment.
A working Nato dinner ended in deadlock on Friday over Turkish concerns about Mr Rasmussen’s defence of Danish newspapers that satirised the prophet Mohammed in 2005.
Leaders reached unanimous agreement on the Dane on Saturday morning after a last-minute intervention by US president Barack Obama.
The result was welcomed with relief by co-hosts of the Franco-German summit.
“The power of unity won the day,” said Dr Merkel. “No one would have understood it if we hadn’t managed to agree on someone.”
Mr Obama left the summit for Prague, praising “significant pledges” on Afghanistan which nevertheless fell short of Washington’s long-held hope of greater combat support from Europe.
European Nato members agreed to send extra troops, but only temporarily, to support the Afghan elections in August.
Mr Rasmussen, an economics graduate, has been a Danish MP for 30 years and first served as a minister in 1987. Leader of Denmark’s liberal party since 2001, his minority coalition government has survived two general elections in 2005 and 2007.
The Danish leader was an early supporter of the Bush White House “war on terror” and has sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.
He takes over in July from Dutchman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato head since 2003.
The new Nato head will be replaced in Copenhagen by the finance minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen. Though no relation of his predecessor, he is the third Rasmussen in succession to head the Danish government.
At the end of the two-day summit in Strasbourg, masked anti-Nato protesters set fire to a hotel and stormed a bridge across the Rhine before being dispersed by French police using tear gas.
French authorities said 17,000 protesters took part in marches; protesters said the true figure was twice that.
They blamed the anarchist “black bloc” for the violence and French police for provoking them.