Denmark's prime minister was appointed the new Nato chief yesterday following 24 hours of brinkmanship and bitter dispute over religion and liberty that risked turning the western military alliance into the hostage of a clash with Islam.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen was named Nato secretary-general after President Barack Obama intervened in a row between the Dane and President Abdullah Gul of Turkey, which had earlier vetoed the appointment.
As the single big Muslim country within Nato, Turkey had refused to yield on the appointment of Rasmussen because of his defence of free speech during the Danish cartoons crisis three years ago and because Denmark is host to a Kurdish rebel TV station broadcasting to Turkey.
Rasmussen was supported by most leading European states, with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, his keenest advocate.
The row with Turkey threatened to mar what was planned to be a celebration of Nato's 60th birthday at a summit staged jointly by France and Germany on both sides of the Rhine.
Turkey yielded at the very end after the summit was extended by two hours and heads of state and government met alone to try to strike a deal. A European foreign minister told the Observer that Turkey backed down when it was promised membership of the European Defence Agency, increasing Ankara's clout in the EU's defence affairs.
Despite the final agreement, the dispute meant that the toxic arguments over religious values, blasphemy and liberties that have raged between the western and Islamic worlds since 9/11 have penetrated the inner sanctum of Nato for the first time. Obama and the other 27 national leaders of Nato sought to forge a consensus on the Danish candidate at a dinner in the German spa town of Baden-Baden on Friday night. But Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, refused to budge. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, then spent hours on the phone to Erdogan yesterday morning without a breakthrough.
In a speech in London on Friday, Erdogan accused Rasmussen - who had just announced that he was quitting Danish politics - of playing host to "terrorists" linked to the PKK Kurdish guerrillas fighting the Turkish state. "The mouthpiece of the terrorist organisation in my country is broadcasting from Denmark. How can someone who did not stop this safeguard peace?", Erdogan declared. "Nato is an organisation whose duties are to ensure peace."
The Turkish leader also complained that Rasmussen had spurned his pleas during the 2006 cartoon crisis to make a gesture to defuse the tensions with the Islamic world. "How can those who made no contribution to peace at that time contribute to peace now?"
Olli Rehn, the top EU official in charge of negotiating Turkey's accession to the union, said Erdogan had blundered and that Ankara's threatened veto threw into greater doubt Turkey's commitment to freedom of expression.