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AFGHANISTAN

• UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his top envoys stepped up lobbying in the White House and elsewhere this week on expanding foreign troops in Afghanistan. In a meeting with President Bush in Washington on Wednesday, Annan emphasized that the current British-led force had a six-month mandate, but that it would take at least 18 months for a post-Taliban Afghanistan to form a credible army and police force that could keep order, UN sources said. (…) Lakhdar Brahimi, Annan’s chief representative in Afghanistan, held meetings in New York this week with key nations, including Britain, France and Germany, on the need to expand the security troops to other areas. (Reuters 150144 GMT Feb 02)

• With their military movements in Afghanistan hampered by millions of land mines, four nations are joining forces to clear fields of the hidden explosives. The United States, Great- Britain, Norway and Jordan are sharing equipment and expertise gained from previous mine-clearing operations in the Balkans and the Middle East, military officers from the four nations said in an interview on Wednesday at coalition headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base. (…) The mine-clearing is focused on areas around new military base camps. (…) Clearing mines around Kandahar’s airport is crucial to the rebuilding of the country and to humanitarian relief, said British Army Lt. Col. Alan Simon. (AP 150407 Feb 02)

• The Congress launched a full-scale investigation on Thursday into why U.S. intelligence agencies failed to detect the Sept. 11 plot, with lawmakers vowing to leave no stone unturned in pursuit of answers and in assigning blame. (…) The investigation will review intelligence failures past and present to establish remedies for the future. (Reuters 142243 GMT Feb 02)

• The EU’s external affairs chief Chris Patten warned the U.S. on Friday to curb its unilateralist "instinct," as a war of words between Washington and Brussels over President Bush’s "axis of evil" comments intensified. (…) "The stunning and unexpectedly rapid success of the military campaign in Afghanistan was a tribute to American capacity," Patten wrote in the Financial Times. "But it has perhaps reinforced some dangerous instincts: that the projection of military power is the only basis of true security; that the U.S. can rely on no one but itself; and that allies may be useful as an optional extra," he added. (Reuters 150219 GMT Feb 02)

• Secretary of State Colin Powell promised U.S. allies on Thursday that they would be consulted closely before President Bush decided how to try to force a regime change in Iraq. However, Powell cautioned the skittish among them that "we have to preserve all options, and we have to preserve the option to act alone." (AP 150352 Feb 02)

• The United States and Britain planned on Thursday to conduct in Nevada their first joint nuclear experiment allowed under the global Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, officials said. Officials said the sub-critical nuclear experiment was planned with the aim of maintaining the safety of the two nations’ atomic weapons without resorting to underground nuclear blasts. (…) The British American Security Information Council said Britain could be studying possible new warhead designs since it will have to decide about replacing the UK Trident missile system by the end of this decade. (Reuters 142024 GMT Feb 02)

• Former Yugoslav President Milosevic, who harshly rejects UN allegations that he ordered murders and deportations during the Balkan wars, will continue presenting his own defense at the war crimes tribunal on Friday. (…) Milosevic renewed his request to the judges to release him in order to better prepare his defense, pledging he would not try to escape. (AP 150226 Feb 02)

• Politicians in Yugoslavia expressed outrage on Thursday over Milosevic’s claims at his UN war crimes trial that he worked to protect his people. (…) Yugoslavia’s information minister, Slobodan Orlic, said that "while the whole world is talking about his individual guilt, Milosevic is again trying to draw the entire Serbian people into the argument." "When he lost the last elections, he lost legitimacy to talk in the name of the Serbian people," Orlic added. (AP 141814 Feb 02)

• The European Union should stop trying to force Montenegro to stay within the Yugoslav Federation and allow it to become independent if it wishes, a group of Balkan experts and parliamentarians said on Thursday. In an open letter to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, the group said the EU was repeating the West’s past mistakes by trying to impose a Balkan settlement against local wishes. (…) The letter proposed either outright independence or a looser confederation as the best options for Montenegro. (…) Separately, one of the signatories, Peter Palmer of the respected Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), said: "By seeking to impose a solution by applying extreme pressure to just one side, the EU is actually polarising the parties and making a tense situation worse." (Reuters 141841 GMT Feb 02)

• Kosovo’s new UN administrator arrived here on Thursday to begin attempts to transfer authority to local institutions and to work to improve security and boost the economy. German veteran diplomat Michael Steiner told reporters in Pristina that he would focus on strengthening the rule of law in the province. "We have to concentrate to transfer of authority to the newly elected government, once it is established," he added. (AP 141815 Feb 02)

• The Russian government broke with a decades-old Soviet tradition of blanket conscription on Thursday, approving a bill that will allow young men to complete national service outside the military. (…) Allowing young men with religious or pacifist convictions to replace military duty with social work will be the first real move in this direction. "Alternative service is still a service to the fatherland," Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko said in televised remarks after the government meeting. (Reuters 142013 GMT Feb 02)

 FINAL ITEM