US offers Turkey billions to aid invasion

On the brink of war : Split in the alliance

A way out of the crisis which has cast doubt on the future of Nato is likely to be found early this week, according to diplomatic sources, possibly in time for the emergency EU summit on Iraq.

The refusal of France, Germany and Belgium to let Nato start defensive planning for Turkey plunged the organisation into one of the most serious crises in its 54-year history.

But following revised proposals by the alliance's secretary-general, Lord Robertson, it is believed that Nato will reaffirm its solidarity with Turkey and allow national defence measures, such as the transfer of Patriot air defence missiles and anti-chemical and anti-biological warfare units to Turkey.

A decision to send Awacs early warning aircraft to Turkey would then be taken by the 18-member Nato defence planning committee, of which France is not a member, allowing France to keep its distance and emphasise that any decision to go to war should be taken by the UN Security Council, not Nato.

The alliance is also expected to stress that force is a last resort, and that Iraq has a last chance to disarm peacefully.

Escaping the Nato impasse might remove one of the obstacles to an early assault on Iraq, but momentum towards a second Security Council resolution authorising the use of force appears to have been lost after last Friday's inconclusive report by the chief weapons inspectors.

In response to a French suggestion that the council meet again on 14 March, the US noted that the inspectors were due to report again on 1 March, suggesting that the inspection process would continue at least until then.

The French were claiming a diplomatic triumph yesterday after the impassioned call by their foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, for the inspectors to be given more time won rare applause in the Security Council.

"France is back on the international scene," the Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, told parliament yesterday. "Now we can make France's voice heard. France is giving peace a chance. France is giving hope to the world, and all over the world people are telling France to hold fast."

Libération newspaper said: "The peace camp has won more time and scored a point. War, as pushed so far by Bush's team, is more and more unjustifiable."

But it also reflected the belief that the reprieve from military action could be brief, and that the atmosphere of compromise might bring closer the moment when France has to contemplate the use of force. "The tension between the allies went down a notch, and anything now seems possible – including war," it said.

In Le Figaro, Pierre Rousselin concluded that the UN had won a reprieve from the consequences of a split among the Western allies and applauded the continuation of weapons inspections.

But he added: "It must be acknowledged that without a credible threat of military action, without this much-feared war, Saddam Hussein would never have accepted coming this far. At the Security Council, Colin Powell was right to stress that."