April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Turkey triggered a spat over the next leader of NATO by opposing the candidacy of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, saying he is unacceptable to the Muslim world.

Turkey, a Muslim country with the 28-nation alliance’s second biggest army after the U.S., looks “negatively” on Rasmussen because of his defense of Danish newspaper cartoons lampooning Islam in 2005, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today in London.

Erdogan’s broadside against the frontrunning candidate cast doubt on whether a new North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief will be appointed when heads of allied governments meet later today for a summit on the French-German border.

NATO’s clash over whether the Danish leader is the right overseer for the alliance’s war in a Muslim country, Afghanistan, poses a test for President Barack Obama as he seeks to rebuild U.S. ties with the Islamic world.

Obama travelled to the NATO meeting from yesterday’s Group of 20 summit in London. He winds up his European tour as Erdogan’s guest in Turkey next week in an effort to reach out to Muslims alienated by President George W. Bush’s anti-terror campaign and Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Respect for Muslims

While Obama didn’t touch on the personnel debate in his public appearances today, he told a town hall session in Strasbourg, France that one of the tenets of the new U.S. foreign policy is to show “greater respect” for Muslim sensitivities.

The appointment didn’t come up in a meeting between Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the summit’s co-host, said Pierre Lellouche, France’s newly appointed special envoy for Afghanistan.

Whoever takes over NATO will inherit an unfinished war in Afghanistan, recession-hit defense budgets, tensions with former Cold War foe Russia and doubts over the pace of the alliance’s future expansion.

Allied forces in Afghanistan are struggling against a resurgent Taliban, the radical Islamist movement that sheltered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden until it was driven from power by the U.S. after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Rasmussen, 56, was best placed to succeed current NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, 61, when his term ends in July, a Sarkozy aide told reporters this week.

Germany backs Rasmussen, Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a briefing with Obama before the summit starts with a dinner in Baden-Baden, Germany. Acknowledging Turkey’s veto right, Merkel added: “I don’t think anybody should be hurt by this, the secretary general has to be chosen unanimously.”

Controversial Cartoons

Turkish rage at Denmark lingers from the caricatures equating Islam with terrorism in 2005, which sparked riots, the burning of Rasmussen’s effigy in Muslim communities and a boycott of Danish products.

A personal element is also in play, after Erdogan boycotted a press conference with Rasmussen in 2005 to protest the presence of reporters from a Kurdish television station that Turkey says has terrorist ties.

“I made a request to Prime Minister Rasmussen years ago to stop that media from broadcasting and he just did not do that,” Erdogan said. “There was also a crisis of the caricatures. I asked for a meeting of Islamic leaders in his country to explain what is going on and he refrained from doing that. So how can I expect him to contribute to peace?”

In an attempt to expose Turkey as the sole holdout, Rasmussen broke the customary silence on his NATO candidacy today. Denmark would be “immensely proud” if he gets the job, Inger Stoejberg, parliamentary spokeswoman for Rasmussen’s Liberal Party, told TV2 News.

Consensus Decision

NATO has had 11 secretaries general, all western Europeans, since the post was created in the early days of the Cold War in 1952. The appointment, usually for a four-year term, is made by consensus, giving veto power to any one member country. NATO’s top military commander, based in Mons, southern Belgium, is traditionally an American. That post is now held by U.S. Army General John Craddock.

NATO’s summit, marking the 60th anniversary of the alliance’s founding as a bulwark against the former Soviet Union, isn’t a deadline for picking the next secretary general, a senior U.S. official told reporters in Brussels this week.

Until Rasmussen went public today, the only country to lift the veil on the behind-the-scenes process was Bulgaria when it nominated former Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, 52, in February.

Other candidates tipped by the media include Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay, 43; Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, 46; and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, 48.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said last month that candidates from all NATO countries are eligible, potentially opening the door for the first Canadian or eastern European secretary general.

To contact the reporter on this story: James G. Neuger in Strasbourg, France at jneuger@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 3, 2009 12:26 EDT