NATO's European Union allies sought to reassure the US today that there was no risk their plans for a robust and independent military arm would undermine the 54-year-old alliance.
Britain also spelt out it had crossed no "red lines" to a camp led by France and Germany, whose lofty ambitions for EU defence Washington suspects are a bid to challenge NATO's primacy as guarantor of European security.
Diplomats said today's closed-door meeting of alliance ambassadors was more even-tempered than their session last week, when US envoy Nicholas Burns described the Franco-German plans as "the most serious threat to the future of NATO".
"The atmosphere was much better," said a senior diplomat after the extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council. "The worst situation we could be in, frankly, would be if either side said we don't want to talk about this. So don't belittle the ability of talk to be a therapy in its own way."
The row was triggered in April by a pioneering quartet of European countries which - fresh from their face-off with Washington over the war in Iraq - agreed to set up a military planning headquarters for EU crisis management operations.
It came to a head at NATO last Wednesday when Burns demanded a debate on the proposal by Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg, and an explanation of how the EU constitution under negotiation will lead to closer European defence integration.
Diplomats said the United States was angry that accounts of last week's outburst had been leaked and it urged allies to give the media scant details of today's meeting.