Sarkozy sets French terms for return to NATO command

NEW YORK (Reuters) - France is ready to rejoin NATO's military command structure provided European defense integration moves forward and the U.S.-led alliance reserves top positions for the French, President Nicolas Sarkozy was quoted on Monday as saying.

In an interview with the New York Times, Sarkozy said he had no problem in principle with returning to NATO's integrated command, from which General Charles de Gaulle abruptly withdrew in 1966.

But he said there would first have to be unspecified progress toward an independent European defense capability.

"It is obvious that if we were to envisage such a move, it could only happen in as much as space was made in the leadership, at the highest level, for representatives of France," he said.

Sarkozy's two conditions echoed the terms set by his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, in an unsuccessful negotiation in 1996 on rejoining NATO's military command.

At that time, talks with Washington foundered on French demands that the United States hand over control of NATO's Southern Command, which covers the strategic Mediterranean area, to a European.

Some NATO diplomats say the chances of an agreement may be better this time because Sarkozy has taken a more pro-American stance than Chirac on a range of international issues and the United States may be less concerned to preserve all its positions in allied commands.