ISTANBUL, 29 June 2004 — NATO leaders united yesterday to promise to help train Iraq’s new army and to commit more troops to Afghanistan, but the deep divisions caused by the US-led war were never far from view.

Tensions were high elsewhere in Istanbul, under heavy guard over fears of terror attacks and as protesters hurled petrol bombs and rocks at police, who responded with water cannon, tear gas and plastic bullets.

In a declaration of support after the surprise announcement that Iraq’s US-led occupation coalition had transferred sovereignty to Baghdad two days early, NATO leaders also condemned the almost daily terrorist attacks.

“We are united in our support for the Iraqi people and offer full cooperation to the new sovereign interim government as it seeks to strengthen internal security and prepare the way to ... elections in 2005,” they said.

The alliance committed to boost by about a third the number of troops available to Afghanistan’s interim government ahead of key elections there scheduled for September, the first since the fall of the Taleban regime.

“A free Iraq and a free Afghanistan are going to set such a vibrant, bright example for others,” US President George W. Bush said after the end of the main session of a NATO Summit in Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul.

French President Jacques Chirac, who had learned of the Iraqi sovereignty handover only at the opening morning session, welcomed the move but warned that it was not NATO’s role to intervene.

“The return of sovereignty to Iraq is in our view a necessary condition ... for the restoration of peace, democracy and development ... However, I do not think that it is NATO’s role to intervene in Iraq,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also expressed satisfaction at the NATO training offer to Iraq. “I can only say that anything that will help stabilize the situation is welcome,” he told reporters in Istanbul.

But questions remain over whether the troops will be trained inside Iraq. After having opposed the US-led war last year, France and Germany have refused to send their soldiers. Spain too is keeping out.

“We will work out the details, the who, the when and the where in coming weeks,” said NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, preferring to focus on the positives of the alliance’s first summit with 26 members.

Despite the progress, simmering tensions between the United States and France resurfaced, with Chirac accusing Bush of going too far by backing his Turkish hosts’ bid to join the European Union, in a weekend speech in Ankara.

“Not only did he go too far, he ventured into territory which is not his concern,” Chirac told reporters. “It would be like me telling the United States how to run its affairs with Mexico.”