French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that he would make a decision by the end of 2008 on France's return to the alliance's military command.
"At the end of the French presidency (of the European Union) the moment will have come to conclude this process and to take the necessary decisions for France to take its full place in NATO's structures," he told a NATO summit in Bucharest.
France, which quit the alliance military command in 1966, will hold the six-month EU rotating presidency at the second half of the year.
French General Charles de Gaulle withdrew French forces from NATO's command during the Cold War, driving out the alliance's headquarters from Paris and Fontainebleau to protest against U.S. hegemony in Europe.
The withdrawal did not stop France from cooperating with NATO's military arm, but France's decisions concerning it is politically symbolic.
"The European Union is going to enter a new phase of its existence with the Lisbon Treaty," said Sarkozy at the summit, the first for him since he came to office last year.
Sarkozy praised U.S. President George W. Bush of what he called "vigorous encouragement" to building up European defense capacities and renovating the military bloc.
Abandoning policies of the former French government, Sarkozy reaffirmed "France's determination to pursue the process of renovating its relations with NATO."
Under former President Jacques Chirac, the French government had pursued a EU foreign and defense policy more independent of NATO.
Source: Xinhua
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