Turkish PM says cold to Rasmussen's NATO bid

Rasmussen informed party colleagues of his candidacy, AP quoted political affairs spokeswoman Inger Stoejberg as telling Denmark's TV2 News.

The Danish prime minister had said for months that he was not an official candidate for the post, but he changed his position three weeks ago and subsequently refused to comment.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said later on Friday he was still cold to Rasmussen's candidacy because he doubted the Dane could contribute to global peace.

"In all honesty, I do not look positively on this topic," he told during a speech delivered on "Global Economic Crisis and Turkey" at Chatham House Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs in London, where he attended the G-20 Summit.

Leaders from the 28-nation alliance had been expected to choose a successor to Dutch diplomat Jaap de Hoop Scheffer during a summit starting on Friday evening at a venue on the border between France and Germany.

But the decision may be delayed as NATO member Turkey remains cold to Rasmussen over a 2005 crisis relating to Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed and Denmark’s failure to ban a television station Ankara says is linked to the terror organization PKK.

Erdogan said last week he had received calls from the leaders of Islamic countries urging Turkey to veto Rasmussen.

Rasmussen was harshly criticized by Muslims worldwide for refusing to apologize for the publication of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb in his turban by a Danish newspaper in 2005. The cartoon, which sparked riots and attacks on Danish embassies in several Muslim states, was defended by Western governments in the name of freedom of expression.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski ruled himself out on Friday as a candidate to become NATO's secretary-general. Other contenders for the NATO post are Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and former British Defense Secretary Des Browne.

De Hoop Scheffer can stay on until July 31 in his current mandate, and several nations have stressed that the decision on naming a successor can be delayed.

Photo is an archive image.