| GEO World | | Muslim nations ask Turkey to veto Rasmussen: Erdogan | Updated at: 1456 PST, Saturday, March 28, 2009
ANKARA: Muslim countries have asked Turkey to veto Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next NATO chief, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said.
The current NATO secretary general, Dutchman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, steps down on July 31 and his successor likely to be named at a NATO summit on April 3 and 4.
Erdogan said he talked to Rasmussen by telephone on Friday and told him the Turkish people were upset by the Danish prime minister's position during a row in 2006 over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad printed in a Danish newspaper.
Rasmussen refused to apologise for the cartoons, which sparked riots and attacks on Danish embassies in several Muslim states. Some Western governments defended the publication of the cartoons in the name of freedom of expression.
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