By Mark John BRUSSELS, Oct 10 (Reuters) - France is proposing steps to boost cooperation between the European Union and NATO in a new move weeks after Paris hinted it was ready to step up its presence in the U.S.-dominated military body, diplomats said. The two Brussels-based institutions work side-by-side in countries such as Afghanistan but ties have been held back by a dispute centering on non-EU NATO member Turkey. Allies have also often accused France of blocking new NATO initiatives. The arrival of President Nicolas Sarkozy has heralded a new tone, with officials indicating last month that France could be ready to reverse a 41-year-old decision to quit NATO's military structures. In a fresh step, France has now unveiled proposals at NATO for more frequent contacts between the two bodies and is due to address the Turkish dispute with a new paper to be circulated to EU partners within days, diplomats said on Wednesday. "We thought it vital to maximise the cooperation between the two bodies...This is an attempt to see how we can overcome some of the difficulties," said a French source who requested anonymity because formal debate of the ideas had not started. The paper distributed at NATO last week includes a call for regular presentations of the work of the EU's presidency at NATO, and for leaders of the two bodies to be more frequently invited to meetings of the other institution. It also proposes closer ties between NATO and the European Defence Agency (EDA), the body charged with coordinating reform of the EU's national defence markets, as well as greater cooperation between NATO and EU crisis management structures. PROTEST More controversial will be how a second document proposes the EU solve a row between Turkey and non-NATO EU member Cyprus that has prevented the two bodies from sharing intelligence and blocked NATO-EU cooperation in operations on the ground. "This is indeed one of the difficulties we have to overcome, but not the only one," said the French source. There was no official French comment on the substance of the document, which is due to be circulated in coming days. Turkey, which began EU membership talks in October 2005, has long demanded the 27-member bloc give it more of a say in the EU's emerging defence policy, arguing that it has contributed troops to EU operations and so deserves to be consulted. It also wants to be granted associate membership of the EDA, something which Cyprus has vetoed. In protest at its treatment, Ankara has blocked plans to enhance cooperation between NATO troops and a future European Union police mission in Kosovo. "If the new French proposals offer greater opportunity for consultation (of Turkey in EU military policy), we could be on the right track. We shall have to see," said one NATO diplomat. General Charles de Gaulle in 1966 pulled personnel out of NATO military headquarters in a row over France's refusal to integrate its air defences into the NATO system or allow the United States to station nuclear arms in France. The dispute prompted NATO to shift headquarters from Paris to Brussels. France partially reintegrated under President Jacques Chirac in the 1990s and has since contributed thousands of troops to NATO operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan. However it remains absent from NATO forums such as the Defence Planning Committee and the Nuclear Planning Group, and has resisted a series of U.S.-backed proposals to reform the alliance since the end of the Cold War.
