The move came as U.N. arms inspectors emerged with guarded optimism from two days of talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad. Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency said inspectors may be "seeing the beginning of a change of heart on the part of Iraq." But U.S. officials said they weren't impressed, characterizing that hope as too little, too late. 

The United States is leading the case to authorize giving Turkey the equipment as soon as possible. 

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson had set Monday as the deadline for NATO's 19 allies to formally hand military planners a list of defensive tasks. He has warned of the dangers to the alliance if the stalemate persists. 

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said NATO must "make sure that Turkey is not put at any risk." 

"I hope that NATO will now realize that they have an obligation to assist a NATO member who asks for help," Powell said. 

Meanwhile, European leaders continued efforts to see the standoff resolved without war. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Monday in Paris, France, for a three-day state visit. 

Putin met German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin on Sunday. Afterward, the two leaders said they hoped Iraq could be disarmed of its weapons of mass destruction peacefully. Putin said this view was also broadly the attitude of two nations with veto powers at the U.N. Security Council -- France and China. (Full story) 

White House dismisses inspectors' optimism
President Bush said the apparent Iraqi change of heart cited by inspectors ElBaradei and Hans Blix was "not good enough." 

"The job of the inspectors is not to negotiate with Iraq but to verify whether or not Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," he said. 

"The ball is very much in Iraq's court," ElBaradei said. "If we see quick progress ... then I believe we will be given the time we need to move. As long as we're registering good progress, I think the Security Council in my view will continue to support the inspections process." 

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, appearing Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer," called Iraq a "serial abuser" of U.N. resolutions and said Resolution 1441, which sent inspectors back to Iraq in November, was a last chance. 

"The Iraqis have not had three months to deal with this problem," Rice said. "They've had 12 years." 

Powell, while pushing for U.N. support for a possible war on Iraq, reaffirmed that the United States and its allies will take military action even without U.N. backing. (Full story) 

Asked about reports that France and Germany may propose sending as many as 2,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops to Iraq to assist inspectors, Powell said he had not seen details of the reported plan and couldn't comment directly. But any such plan would not change the intent of Resolution 1441, he said. 

"What are these blue-helmeted U.N. forces going to do, shoot their way into Iraqi compounds?" Powell said. 

Iraq hands over documents
Blix said the Iraqis had handed over documents on "specific, high-profile unresolved issues," including anthrax, the chemical agent VX and missiles. He said U.N. experts in New York would examine the documents Monday and Tuesday. 

However, Blix repeated comments he has made in past weeks that Iraqi officials were being cooperative on "process" -- granting inspectors access to sites they wanted to visit -- but less cooperative on "substance" -- the resolution of remaining disarmament issues. 

Blix and ElBaradei are due to report to the Security Council on Friday. Inspectors are awaiting an answer from Baghdad on a key issue: whether Iraq will agree to allow American U-2 spy planes to do aerial surveillance. Iraq told the inspectors it would respond by Friday. 

Previously, Iraq has refused, saying it could not guarantee the aircraft's safety and expressing fear that the United States would shoot down its own plane as a pretext to start a war.