NATO Backs U.S. but Bars Sending Troops to Mideast : Defense: Its secretary general calls Iraq a threat to Western security. But he says tradition forbids military action unless a member nation comes under attack.

NATO foreign ministers Friday offered unanimous rhetorical support for U.S. action against Iraq but ruled out committing the alliance’s combined military forces, even if American troops come under fire.

Manfred Woerner, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said NATO will respond militarily if Turkish territory is attacked but will not send allied forces to Saudi Arabia in the event that American, British or French troops engage in combat there.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who warned that the world will face “a new dark age” unless Iraq’s aggression is reversed, said he was “not dissatisfied in the slightest” by the decision of the emergency session of NATO’s governing council.

He said the alliance offered “very strong and forthcoming” political support for President Bush’s decision to send U.S. forces to Saudi Arabia to defend the desert kingdom against possible Iraqi aggression.

However, in the text of his speech to the NATO meeting, made public before the session ended, Baker seemed to ask for more.

“I know this is a sensitive point for some of you,” Baker said. “My suggestion is simple. Members of the alliance should exchange information in NATO about their political and military activities to facilitate practical cooperation in whatever channels--bilateral or multilateral--are most useful.”

Woerner said the 16-member alliance unanimously condemned Iraq’s invasion and subsequent annexation of neighboring Kuwait. He also said that all members agreed to oppose Iraqi aggression “each in his own way.” But he said that the foreign ministers refused to change the 41-year-old pact’s traditional posture of using its combined military force only if the territory of one of its members is attacked.

“It is very clear that an attack on Turkey would be considered an attack on all member nations as stated in our treaty,” Woerner said. “There is no doubt that the alliance will live up to this commitment. The area where military action can take place is described (in the treaty). The territory of Saudi Arabia is not included.”

Despite the alliance’s reluctance to take collective military action, Woerner said, “Iraqi aggression threatens the national security and the collective security of the allies.”

He said members of the alliance might coordinate their political response to Iraqi aggression but will not use the alliance for military coordination.

The NATO decision means that the growing international armed force being assembled in Saudi Arabia and on the waters of the Persian Gulf will have no formal forum for coordination.

At a news conference after the meeting, Baker said the forces will have to set up some sort of coordinating mechanism, especially if they are to attempt a complex operation such as a naval blockade of Iraq. He did not indicate how that would be accomplished.

Among NATO members, the United States, Britain and France already have sent or announced that they will send ground, naval or air units to the region.

On Friday, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada said in Ottawa that his nation will send two destroyers, a supply vessel and 800 sailors to the Persian Gulf as its contribution to the multinational force.

And West Germany said it is sending four or five mine sweepers and a supply ship to the Mediterranean in case Iraq tries to mine shipping lanes there. Bonn left open the possibility that they could sail to the Persian Gulf region.

In addition, Baker expressed gratitude to Italy, Spain and Portugal for permitting the United States to use bases in those countries to provide logistic support for the gulf operation. The bases are jointly operated by the United States and the host countries and are limited to NATO activities, unless there is an agreement to expand their scope.

The Spanish, Portuguese and Italian bases are in the same legal category as the strategically placed Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, near the Mediterranean town of Adana. Turkey has declined, so far, to give Washington advance permission to use the base for actions against Iraq, although U.S. officials say they have no doubt that the Turkish government would lift the restrictions if hostilities broke out.

The NATO foreign ministers acted after Baker warned that if Iraq is not checked, the United Nations will wither away just as the League of Nations did when it failed to curb Nazi Germany in the late 1930s.

Baker said if the sanctions voted earlier this week by the U.N. Security Council do not force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to back down, “it is hard to imagine how any U.N. sanctions could ever succeed.

“The United Nations, as an institution, will have suffered a mortal blow--just as the League of Nations did before it, under analogous circumstances,” he said.

Baker said the U.N. sanctions, if rigorously enforced, could bring Hussein to his knees. But he said it will take time.

“We need to buy time for the U.N. actions to undo the aggression that has already occurred,” he said. “And we need to cooperate to ensure these sanctions are effective.

“The world will look to us--the nations represented here today--for leadership,” he added. “We should provide it.”

Baker said that an international naval blockade of Iraq is a possibility, but he said it may not prove to be necessary.

“First, we should give the sanctions some time to work and give ourselves time to see what else is needed to make them effective,” Baker said. “We should show, however, that we will do whatever must be done in order to enforce the will of the United Nations.”

Woerner said the other allies “endorsed actions that might be taken by member states to enforce the sanctions of the U.N. Security Council.” He emphasized, however, that the actions would be taken individually and not as an alliance.

Baker flew home after the meeting. He plans to go to Kennebunkport, Me., today to report to President Bush on his consultations in Brussels and Ankara, Turkey.

MILITARY REACTION Britain: Sending two squadrons of jet fighters to Saudi Arabia plus naval force including a destroyer and two frigates. Three minesweepers and support vessels will be sent to eastern Mediterranean. France: Deploying seven ships, including aircraft carrier and guided-missile cruiser. West Germany: Sending four to five minesweepers to the eastern Mediterranean. Denmark: Allowing merchant navy vessels in the gulf to act as supply ships for multinational force. Offering to fill gaps within the NATO area caused by the deployment of ships from other NATO nations to the gulf. Greece, Spain, Portugal: Allowing use of airspace and/or air bases for the deployment of U.S. troops and materiel to the gulf. Italy: Allowing use of its airspace; is to decide within days on whether to join multinational force. Turkey: Has closed down pipelines carrying Iraqi oil and pledged use of its bases if war breaks out. Canada: Sending three ships and 800 sailors to the Persian Gulf. Australia: Sending two guided-missile frigates to join multinational force. Netherlands, Belgium: Expected to announce within a few days whether or not they will join multinational force.