Question: When did the Americans extract a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the mediterranean?
About the article "World War II", section "Axis advance stalls (1942–43)".

Candidate passages:
Axis advance stalls (1942–43).
In January, the United States, Britain, Soviet Union, China, and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter, and agreeing to not to sign separate peace with the Axis powers.
During 1942 Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue.
All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective.
The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France.
The Soviets were also demanding a second front.
The British, on the other hand, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas in order to throw a "ring" around Germany which would wear out German strength, lead to increasing demoralisation, and bolster resistance forces.
Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign.
An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour without using large-scale armies.
Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.
At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943 the Allies issued a declaration declaring that they would not negotiate with their enemies and demanded their unconditional surrender.
The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes.
Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943 the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to invade France in 1944.
During 1941, the British launched several offensives to push back the Axis forces in North Africa.
The first, Operation Battleaxe, was a failure.
The second, much larger offensive, Operation Crusader was launched at the end of the year.
Over December 1941 into early 1942, Allied forces pushed the Italian-German forces back through Libya to roughly the limit of the previous Operation Compass advance.
Taking advantage of the Allied position, German forces struck back and pushed the Allied to Gazala - west of Tobruk.
As both sides prepared for future offensives, the Axis forces struck first and inflicted a heavy defeat upon the Allied forces during the Battle of Gazala.
The routed Allied forced retreated to Egypt where they commenced to make a stand at El Alamein.
Following the First Battle of El Alamein, which had stalled the Axis advance into Egypt, British forces went onto the offensive in October.
The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign and turned the tide in the North African Campaign.
It ended the Axis threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal, and of gaining access to the Middle Eastern and Persian oil fields via North Africa.
As the Eighth Army pushed west across the desert, capturing Libya, German forces occupied southern France and landed in Tunisia.
On 8 November, Allied forces launched Operation Torch landing in various places across French North Africa.
In December 1942, after a 101-day British blockade, French Somaliland fell to the Allies.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States of America joined the war.
It was not until 8 November when American forces entered combat in the Mediterranean and Middle East.
The American Official campaign historian George Howe comments that the arrival of American forces "transformed the Mediterranean from a British to an Allied theatre of war" and "succeeding operations in the Mediterranean area proved far more extensive than intended.
One undertaking was to lead to the next".
The series of books detailing the American war effort in this theatre is dubbed 'The Mediterranean Theatre of Operations' and Howe also uses the term 'The Mediterranean Theatre of War'.
While the American effort is provided a different name, Howe notes how American forces were entering into a theatre of war that had already been waging since 1940.
All allied forces were now placed under the command of the Supreme Allied Commander AFHQ Mediterranean, which at the present was General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Although the Italian and German forces, no longer led by an ailing Rommel but by Italian general Giovanni Messe, were now pincered between the Allied armies during the Tunisia Campaign, they did manage to stall the Allies with a series of defensive operations, most notably with the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, but they were out-flanked, out-manned and out-gunned.
Messe achieved a defensive victory at the Mareth Line.
But his continuous tactical delay of the Allied offensive could not prevent the inevitable defeat of the Axis in North Africa.
After shattering the Axis defence on the Mareth Line, the Allies squeezed Axis forces into a pocket around Tunis and resistance in Africa ended on 13 May 1943 with the surrender of nearly 240,000 prisoners of war. 
In 1778, the British Royal Navy failed to secure a victory against the French Marine Royale at the Battle of Ushant, leading French naval figures to believe that they could have won if their force had been larger.
On 12 April 1779, France, which had directly allied itself with the Americans in February 1778, signed a secret treaty with Spain, bringing it into the war against Great Britain.
Fearful of the consequences in their own American empire, the Spanish did not openly support the Americans rebelling against British rule, but were willing to undertake direct operations against British interests.
Spain instead sought to regain various territories, most notably the fortress of Gibraltar, which gives its holder considerable power over the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.
On 3 June 1779 the French fleet at Brest unexpectedly left port and sailed southward, then on 16 June Spain declared war on Great Britain. 
Originally, Allied Forces Southern Europe was one of two major NATO commands in the Mediterranean area, the other being Allied Forces Mediterranean based on the island of Malta, responsible for naval activities in the region.
While Admiral Robert B. Carney of the U.S. Navy was appointed as Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe (CinCAFSOUTH) on 19 June 1951, AFMED was not activated until 1953.
The delay was due to negotiations and compromises between the Americans and the British, who wished to retain one of their commanders over Britain's traditional sea lines of communication stretching through the Mediterranean to the Suez Canal and beyond.
From 1951 to 2003, the Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces Southern Europe was always a United States Navy admiral, based at Naples, who also held the national appointment of Commander-in-Chief United States Naval Forces Europe.
When Greece and Turkey joined the alliance in early 1952, a new allied land sub-command, Allied Land Forces South-Eastern Europe (LANDSOUTHEAST), was created with its headquarters based in Izmir, Turkey, under the command of a U.S. Army General.
Later in 1953, the various national naval forces within Allied Forces Mediterranean were organised into six separate areas, each commanded by an Admiral (including one French (MEDOC), one Greek, one Turkish, one Italian and two British).
In time of war, CINCAFMED would be responsible for securing the Sea lines of communications throughout the Mediterranean Sea.
Some of AFSOUTH's first exercises took place in 1952.
Operation Ancient Wall was a series of military maneuvers involving ground small unit tactical training, land-based tactical air support, and carrier-based air support under the overall command of Admiral Carney.
Exercise Grand Slam was a combined naval exercise held in the Mediterranean Sea between 25 February to 16 March 1952.
The exercise included allied warships escorting three convoys of supply ships which were subjected to repeated simulated air and submarine attacks, as well as anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations and naval gunfire shore bombardment.
Operation Longstep was a ten-day naval exercise held in the Mediterranean Sea held during November 1952.
It involved over 170 warships and 700 aircraft, and it featured a large-scale amphibious assault along the western coast of Turkey.1953 AFSOUTH exercises included:  "Italic Weld" — a combined air-naval-ground exercise in northern Italy involving the United States, Italy, Turkey, and Greece  "Weldfast" — a combined amphibious landing exercise in the Mediterranean Sea involving British, Greek, Italian, Turkish, and U.S. naval forces In 1957, Operation Deep Water simulated the defence of the Dardanelles from a Soviet attack.
The exercise included an 8,000 strong amphibious landing.
The drawdown of the British Mediterranean Fleet, the military difficulties of the politically-decided command structure, and the withdrawal of the French from the military command structure forced a rearrangement of the command arrangements in the southern region.
Allied Forces Mediterranean was disbanded on 5 June 1967, and all forces in the south and the Mediterranean assigned to AFSOUTH.AFSOUTH continued to conduct exercises in the 1960s and 1970s, among which was exercise 'Dawn Patrol,' a five-nation naval and air exercise conducted throughout the Mediterranean in 1974.
The U.S. contribution to the exercise was based on the USS "America" carrier battle group.
From 1967 the overall shape of AFSOUTH did not significantly change until the command was renamed in 2004.
There were five principal subordinate commands (PSCs).
The number rose to six when Greece was taking part in the military structure; Greece withdrew from the NATO military structure after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and after some behind the scenes negotiating by NATO officials, returned in October 1980.
Two land commands, Allied Land Forces Southern Europe and Allied Land Forces Southeastern Europe, were tasked to defend Italy and Turkey respectively.
Each was directly responsible to Commander-in-Chief, AFSOUTH, and supported by a tactical air force, 5th Allied Tactical Air Force in Italy and 6th Allied Tactical Air Force in Turkey.
The two allied tactical air forces were under an overall air command, Allied Air Forces Southern Europe, headquartered at Naples in Italy under a United States Air Force officer, ComAirSouth, responsible himself to CinCAFSOUTH.
ComAirSouth held the U.S. national appointment of Commander Sixteenth Air Force for a long period.
Due to political considerations, command of the naval forces in the region was split.
Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe, at Naples, operated most of the NATO allies' naval forces in the Mediterranean under an Italian admiral.
But due to the U.S. desire to retain control of their nuclear-armed naval forces, the United States Sixth Fleet reported directly to CinCAFSOUTH, supported by a separate headquarters named Naval Striking and Support Forces Southern Europe (STRIKFORSOUTH).
The sixth command was an Allied command responsible for the land defence of Greece, named Allied Land Forces South-Central Europe or LANDSOUTHCENT.
However it is not certain that it actually was ever operational, with the 1998/99 NATO Handbook listing it as 'yet to be activated.'
Below these PSCs were smaller headquarters such as Maritime Air Forces, Mediterranean, at Sigonella, Sicily, responsible for coordination of the aerial anti-submarine effort, Submarine Forces, South, and the Naval On-Call Force Mediterranean, a multinational escort squadron activated at intervals.
From 1992 AFSOUTH was heavily involved in NATO operations in the Balkans, initially with NATO seaborne enforcement of a UN arms embargo, Operation 'Maritime Monitor,' which began in July 1992.
This operation was fused with a similar Western European Union effort and thus became Operation Sharp Guard from July 1993.
AFSOUTH also directed activities such as Operation Deny Flight from AIRSOUTH headquarters in Italy.
Commander-in-Chief AFSOUTH directed the NATO peacekeeping missions in Bosnia & Hercegovina, IFOR and SFOR, from December 1995.
While technically in charge of KFOR from mid-1999, General Sir Mike Jackson's autobiography, "Soldier," indicates General Wesley Clark at SHAPE in Belgium directly supervised many of KFOR's activities, without going through AFSOUTH, at least during the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps' tour as HQ KFOR in 1999.
The reorganisation of AFSOUTH as JFC Naples in 2004 was a part of NATO’s transformation, initiated by the Prague summit of 2002, aimed at adapting the allied military structure to the operational challenges of coalition warfare, to face the emerging threats in the new millennium.
The new NATO Command Structure is leaner, more flexible, and focused on conducting a much wider range of missions. 
On December 10, 1943, MAC was disbanded and the Allied air forces in the MTO were again reorganized as the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (MAAF) with Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder as Air Commander-in-Chief.
In mid-January 1944, Lieutenant General Ira Eaker took over MAAF when Eisenhower chose Tedder to oversee air operations and planning for the Normandy Landings.
The new MAAF organization contained separate strategic, coastal, and tactical air forces under a single unified structure: Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Force (MASAF) under Major General Nathan Twining; Mediterranean Allied Coastal Air Force (MACAF) under Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Lloyd; and Mediterranean Allied Tactical Air Force (MATAF) under Major General John K. Cannon.