The French are at it again: France Blocks U.S. on Elite Force for Afghanistan.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - France has blocked a U.S. bid to deploy NATO’s new strike force to safeguard Afghanistan’s elections, stoking tension between the two allies that fell out over the Iraq war, diplomats said Tuesday.

“France, and to a lesser extent others such as Spain, are suspicious about using the NATO Response Force (NRF),” said one envoy at the alliance summit in Istanbul.

“It says the force is not ready for this kind of environment and should not be used simply as a sticking plaster for troop shortages on routine operations.”

France’s opposition to a proposal that could help resolve NATO’s problems finding troops to make the September polls safe exasperated Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who pushed the idea hard at a meeting of allied defense ministers.

A senior U.S. official said Rumsfeld had suggested that the alliance could sometimes use its Defense Planning Committee — on which France has no seat because it is not part of NATO’s integrated military structure — to authorize an NRF deployment.