The spokesman said that Schroeder had sent a signal about the need for change to his NATO partners in a weekend speech, which the German press said was to likely damage relations with them, above all the United States.

"The proposal comes at the right time," said the spokesman, Thomas Steg, ahead of the February 22 summit, which is to include US President George W. Bush.

Schroeder's plan was unveiled in a speech on Saturday at the Munich security conference in which he said NATO "is no longer the primary venue where transatlantic partners discuss and coordinate strategies."

In his speech, read by Defence Minister Peter Struck because he was ill, Schroeder urged the European Union and the United States to set up a panel of independent senior officials to analyse new ways to boost transatlantic ties.

"This panel should submit a report to the heads of state and government of NATO and the European Union by the beginning of 2006 on the basis of its analysis and proposals. The necessary conclusions could then be drawn," he said.

The German press hit out at Schroeder on Monday and said that Struck had been ill-prepared, unable to say whether the chancellor wanted the military alliance dissolved, and that his aides were surprised and disappointed.

The daily Die Welt headlined with "Schroeder alienates his NATO partners," saying it put new strains on relations with Washington already badly frayed by Germany's opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.

"If Europe's most important NATO partner starts questioning the alliance, a new Atlantic crisis will erupt," the country's most widely-read newspaper, Bild, said in an editorial.

"In the way he conveyed the idea he has done serious if not irreparable damage," the Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote, adding that the chancellor had "left the NATO secretary general thinking he is doing a bad job."

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