AP: France on collision course over NATO - by Jamey Keaten

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France on collision course over NATO -by Jeamy Keaten

France's rejection of a global role for NATO puts Paris on a collision course with the bolder NATO ambitions of other powerful alliance members — most notably the United States and Britain. The debate comes as President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares to formalize France's return to NATO's integrated military command after an absence of 43 years. That will take place before France and Germany host the alliance's 60th anniversary summit April 3-4. French Defense Minister Herve Morin told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that France rejects the idea of a "global NATO" and urged talks with Russia before the Atlantic alliance expands.

"France perceives NATO HQ to be a top heavy institution, with the number of staff operating civilian tasks disproportionately to those available to perform military duties," Alastair Cameron of Britain's Royal United Services Institute wrote in a paper last month.U.S. and British dominance of NATO prompted the late President Charles de Gaulle to vastly trim France's ties to the alliance in 1966.