BRUSSELS, Belgium -- New German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer challenged NATO on Tuesday to reduce its dependence on nuclear deterrence in the post-Cold War world, but the alliance's atomic powers politely rebuffed him.
Fischer, a leader of the anti-nuclear Greens party that grew out of 1980s pacifist movements and which now is part of Germany's coalition government, urged the alliance to set an example in the fight against the spread of weapons of mass destruction by renouncing the first use of nuclear arms."NATO has never in the past imposed taboos on thinking. That was its strength and should remain so," he said.
He was given a courteous hearing and several ministers said it was legitimate to revisit nuclear policy as part of a review of NATO strategy for the 21st century. But the nuclear powers -- the United States, France and Britain -- rejected any attempt to tie their hands.
"NATO is a consensus organization and the nuclear powers said they thought differently," Fischer told a news conference after making his debut at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright assured European allies that Washington was not trying to create a "global NATO," although she said the alliance must be flexible in meeting challenges to its common interests beyond its borders.
She also urged NATO to undertake a new initiative to combat weapons of mass destruction and endorsed Franco-British proposals for a stronger European defense role while insisting it must not pre-empt NATO decisionmaking.
Albright's comments were the first formal unveiling of U.S. proposals for NATO's 50th anniversary summit in Washington next April, which will welcome the first former communist central European NATO members -- Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine argued against "too elastic an interpretation of common interests" and said NATO operations beyond alliance borders should require a U.N. Security Council mandate.