NATO failed to agree on a new leader at a summit on Friday after Turkey raised doubts about the image among Muslims of frontrunner Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, diplomats said.

"Discussion on the issue will continue tomorrow," a diplomat said on the first day of a two-day summit.

Rasmussen has been backed by the main European powers and the United States in his bid to succeed Dutchman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as NATO secretary-general.

But Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday criticised his handling of a 2006 crisis over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published by a Danish newspaper and said NATO should look for another name

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