Until the last minute it looked like Turkey was going to use its veto to block the appointment of Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to succeed Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as secretary general of Nato. Turkey objected to Fogh Rasmussen because of his refusal to apologise for the publication of the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. The cartoons led to widespread - sometimes violent - protests in the Muslim world.

But on Saturday de Hoop Scheffer was able to announce that the alliance's 28 heads of state and government had reached an agreement.

"You know that there has been discussion over the past 36 hours, but the fact that we are standing here next to each other means a solution has been found also for the concerns expressed by Turkey, and we all very much agree and are unanimous," De Hoop Scheffer said.

Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had dropped its opposition to Fogh Rasmussen as the next head of Nato after US president Barack Obama answered Ankara's "objections".

Erdogan told Turkish television that Turkey had received "guarantees" from Obama that one of Rasmussen's deputies would be a Turk and that Turkish commanders would be present at the alliance's command.

Fogh Rasmussen is the leader of the Danish Liberal Party, and he has led three successive minority governments in Denmark. He will be succeeded as prime minister by the current finance minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen. Fogh Rasmussen will replace Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as secretary general on August 1, 2009.