NATO leaders have agreed unanimously to appoint Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next head of the alliance after Turkey dropped its objections.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a joint news conference with Mr Rasmussen: 'You know that there has been discussion over the past 36 hours.
'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.'
Mr Rasmussen will succeed the Dutch diplomat on 1 August.
Turkey had earlier defied the other 27 members of NATO by trying to block the appointment of Mr Rasmussen.
His nomination was controversial because of his handling of a 2006 crisis over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had urged NATO to look for alternatives to Mr Rasmussen.
US President Barack Obama won NATO backing for his new approach to Afghanistan but his European allies stopped short of offering long-term troop deployments for the war effort.
Leaders of the 28-nation military alliance pledged at a summit to send 3,000 more troops on short-term assignments to boost security for 20 August elections in Afghanistan, and some 2,000 more personnel to train Afghan security forces.
They also promised to send 300 paramilitary police trainers and provide $600 million to finance the Afghan army and civilian assistance, Mr Obama said.
Violent protests in Strasbourg
Anti-NATO protesters set ablaze a hotel and a border post on the river Rhine and riot police fired volleys of teargas and shock grenades to try to contain growing violence.
Hundreds of demonstrators also torched tyres, smashed windows and ransacked shops in an escalation of rioting during a summit of NATO leaders in Strasbourg.
The worst of the violence was centred close to the French side of the Bridge of Europe - a road link over the river Rhine which connects France with Germany.
The bridge is 5km from the conference centre where 28 NATO leaders, including President Obama, were meeting, and a pall of black smoke was clearly visible from the summit venue.
The summit brought France back into NATO's military structures and welcomed new members Albania and Croatia.
Confirming his plan to reverse his predecessor Charles de Gaulle's 1966 decision to pull out of NATO's integrated military command, Mr Sarkozy said: 'We want to be friends, and allies that stand tall.
'We are members of the family, we are in the family, we are allies, we have convictions.'
The summit is being held on both sides of the border and hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Berlusconi misses NATO ceremonies
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi threw out the protocol rulebook, missing NATO ceremonies and failing to greet his hosts because he was so engrossed in a mobile phone call.
A source in Mr Berlusconi's office said the Italian leader had been doing NATO business, trying to convince Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to accept the European candidate for the next head of the military alliance.
Mr Berlusconi was speaking intensely into his phone when he arrived for the start of a second day of a NATO summit.
Instead of walking up the red carpet to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel he carried on his conversation.
A bemused-looking Ms Merkel continued to welcome other arriving leaders, shrugging her shoulders at one point.
She eventually gave up on Mr Berlusconi and led the other dignitaries across a footbridge over the Rhine river, where French President Nicolas Sarkozy met them half-way in a choreographed reception symbolising unity within the alliance.
Mr Berlusconi remained on the German side of the river, missing a group photograph and a minute's silence in honour of NATO soldiers killed in action.
When he finally joined the other 27 heads of state and government, he appeared to explain to Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy what had delayed him for so long.
