"A meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of foreign ministers will be held at NATO headquarters from 14:30 to 16:00 hours on Thursday, 3 April 2003," a NATO press release said.

The meeting of NATO foreign ministers would be preceded by an informal working luncheon between NATO and the European Union (EU)foreign ministers, the press release said.

NATO made the decision following an abrupt visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the headquarters of the military alliance in Brussels.

Powell's visit was reportedly aimed at trying to "mend the fences" among the member states in the military bloc and to persuade the EU to contribute to the reconstruction of postwar Iraq.

The Iraq issue has left NATO and the EU widely divided. Britain, Spain and Italy stood by Washington's war efforts to disarm Iraq, but France, Germany and Belgium led the anti-war camp.

The internal rift over how to handle the Iraq issue is seen as an indication that both sides in the EU and NATO are drifting further apart due to different strategic interests.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2003)