Turkish President Abdullah Gul and U.S. President Barack Obama held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Strasbourg, France on Saturday.

The meeting which was held prior to the official inauguration of the summit lasted almost an hour.

During the gathering, the two leaders exchanged views on who would be the new secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), officials said.

According to sources, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen attended some part of the Gul-Obama meeting as well.

The U.S. administration announced earlier on Saturday that talks were underway to determine NATO's new secretary-general, stating that there was currently no "sense of urgency" on this matter.

On the other hand, Germany, which supports Rasmussen's candidacy, declared on Saturday that efforts would continue for the determination of the new secretary-general by the end of today's NATO summit.

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Güncelleme Tarihi: 04 Nisan 2009, 18:31