Strasbourg, France/Ankara - US President Barack Obama was instrumental in ending Turkish obstruction to the appointment of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the new NATO secretary general, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.

Erdogan told Turkish television that Obama had offered Ankara a number of guaranties, which he did not detail.

Western diplomats in Strasbourg agreed that the American president had on his own secured the last-gasp deal to name a successor to outgoing NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

According to the diplomats, who spoke on condition that their names not be used, the final round of discussions on the issue involved only Obama, Rasmussen and Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

The resolution finally came when Obama reminded Gul that he was traveling to Turkey on Monday and that an end to the row over Rasmussen would set a good sign.

German diplomats said that an additional incentive was the granting of a senior NATO post to a Turkish official.

The failure to agree on Rasmussen had overshadowed the opening of the summit celebrating the 60th anniversary of NATO's founding.

The Turks had strongly objected to Rasmussen because of his handling of the 2005 and 2006 row over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in Danish media and angered large sectors of the Muslim world. (dpa)