We must rebalance our long-term priorities so that we successfully move beyond today's wars, and focus our attention and resources on a broader set of countries and challenges.

His main rivals, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, emphasise how tough they will be on terrorists but say as little as possible about Iraq.

Once the new strategic concept is adopted, the summit will turn to the alliance's most pressing problem-the uncertain prospects of the campaign in Afghanistan and the lessons so far drawn from it.