Denmark's prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen edged closer to being named the next Nato secretary general after the US has decided to back his nomination, world news agencies reported on March 22.

"The United States has made up its mind. It will support Anders Fogh Rasmussen," Agence France Presse quoted an unnamed alliance diplomat as saying.

A report in the Financial Times earlier in March said that Britain, France and Germany have agreed to back the 56-year-old to become the alliance's next top chief diplomat.

Rasmussen has downplayed the media reports in recent months but has never officially ruled him himself out of the race to replace Jaap de Hoop Scheffer when the Dutchman's term expires in July, AFP said. Rasmussen has been Danish prime minister since 2001 and still has two and-a-half-years of his term left to run.

Traditionally, the Nato secretary general is an European, while the top military commander is from the US.

Rasmussen's support for US initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan is valued by Washington, while the European members of the alliance appreciate his support for closer co-operation between Nato and the European Union.

All reports appear to agree that there remains a degree of uncertainty over Turkey's position on the issue, given how Rasmussen refused to apologise after a Danish newspaper published a series of cartoons in 2005, one of which depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, to spark an outcry in Muslim countries.

In another sign that consensus is slowly being built, Canada's defence minister Peter Mackay said that he was focused on continuing the reform of Canada's armed forces, although he did not formally rule himself out.

Another strong candidate for the job, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorksi, is seen as hampering Nato's relationship with Russia. Bulgaria's former foreign minister Solomon Passi, the only candidate to have put his name forward officially, is not seen as a serious contender.