Nato leaders agreed unanimously today to appoint Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next head of the alliance after Turkey dropped its objections.
Nato secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a joint news conference with Mr Rasmussen: "You know that there has been discussion over the past 36 hours, but the fact that we are standing here next to each other means a solution has been found also for the concerns expressed by Turkey, and we all very much agree and are unanimous."
Mr Rasmussen, whose nomination was controversial because of his handling of a 2006 crisis over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper, will succeed the Dutch diplomat on August 1st.
US president Barack Obama, making his first overseas tour since taking office in January, had signalled to Europe that he would support Mr Rasmussen.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had also openly endorsed Mr Rasmussen and sounded confident a deal would be swiftly reached, but she appeared to misjudge Turkey, which argued that the Dane would undermine Nato's reputation in the Muslim world.
The leaders had hoped to reach a decision on the new head of Nato yesterday to clear the way for detailed discussions today over Afghanistan with Mr Obama promoting his new Afghan strategy and keen for Europe to do more to bolster the war effort.
Nato leaders agreed unanimously today to appoint Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next head of the alliance after Turkey dropped its objections.
Anti-Nato protesters set ablaze a hotel and a border post on the river Rhine today and riot police fired volleys of teargas and shock grenades to try to contain growing violence.
Hundreds of demonstrators also torched tyres, smashed windows and ransacked shops in an escalation of rioting during a summit of Nato leaders in the French city of Strasbourg.
The worst of the violence was centred close to the French side of the Bridge of Europe -- a road link over the river Rhine which connects France with Germany.
The bridge is 5km from the conference centre where the 28 Nato leaders,were meeting, and a pall of black smoke was clearly visible from the summit venue.
A German first aide volunteer said around 50 people had been hurt in the clashes with riot police.
The demonstrators campaigning to have NATO disbanded following the end of the Cold War, had vowed to disrupt Saturday's meeting after two days of skirmishes with police.
However, organisers said they had wanted a peaceful protest and expressed shock at the violence.
"I am very angry. This was meant to be a peaceful demonstration ... and tonight, instead of images of peace we will see images of war," said Marie-George Buffet, a veteran leader of the French Communist party.
German police arrested 13 divers early in the morning shortly before leaders crossed the Rhine on a footbridge linking the two European neighbours, in a ceremony symbolising two generations of peace since World War Two.
Groups of protesters attempting to cross the Rhine from Germany via the nearby road bridge clashed briefly with French police and were forced back.
Protest organisers said the majority of tens of thousands of activists in Strasbourg and nearby Baden-Baden did not aim to carry out violence and blamed tensions on security forces.
"No one here has attacked any police, but we have been hit with teargas and beaten up," said spokesman Monty Schaedel.
Police said some of the protesters who left a designated demonstrators' campsite near Strasbourg early today were armed with sticks, barbed wire and stones hidden in sacks.
Yesterday, Mr Obama was mobbed by cheering crowds in both France and Germany yesterday, underlining his popularity in Europe which had never warmed to predecessor George W. Bush.
Mr Obama told an enthusiastic audience of French and German youths that America was changing, but he said Europe was more threatened by al-Qaeda than the United States because it was closer to the conflict zones.
He said European nations should do more to help in the fight against Islamist militants in the Afghan war, which risks slipping from Nato's control more than seven years after US-backed forces toppled the Taliban from power.
"Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone," he said, looking to get Nato to back his new Afghan plan which includes sending thousands more troops into the war zone over the coming months.
Reuters