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NATO-RUSSIA

• In an effort to meet NATO military standards, Bulgaria on Tuesday signed a contract with a Russian company to repair and upgrade 20 MiG-29 tactical fighter planes. The company, MiG Corporation, won an international tender for the contract to restore the Russian-built MiG plans. The company is charged with repairing the planes’ airframes, engines and some component parts, and with modernizing the avionics. Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov said that since Russia does not belong to NATO, a separate subcontractor will also be hired to make additional upgrades to meet alliance standards. Twelve companies are currently vying for that contract. NATO’s supreme commander in Europe, U.S. Gen. Joseph Ralston, said last week that alliance members would accept as "an interim decision" Bulgaria's plans to adapt its jet fighters to NATO standards instead of immediately replacing them with costly western planes. Bulgaria hopes to receive an invitation to join NATO at an alliance summit later this year.(AP 261415 Mar 02 GMT)

• Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Tuesday that Russia should be given a real say in NATO decision-making as part of efforts to improve relations with the west, saying close consultation would help the alliance to avoid making mistakes. "Russia must have the right to participate in the decisions" of NATO, he told a news conference ahead of a visit to Germany by Russian President Vladimir Putin next month. He called for a "high degree of cooperation and coordination," but didn’t elaborate on what "mistakes" NATO may otherwise make. Gorbachev, who also called for an overhaul of Russia’s relations with the EU, was promoting events organized by a discussion forum to coincide with Putin’s April 9-10 visit, which is to include talks with Chancellor Schroeder in the eastern city of Weimar.(AP 261433 Mar 02 GMT)

NATO

• The United States, keen to reassure NATO partners it still cares about the alliance despite sidelining it in the U.S. "war on terrorism", told its allies on Tuesday that Iraq was trying to build unconventional weapons. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage declined to give details of the classified briefing but told reporters: "In general, it was a discussion of the activities of Iraq and the Iraqi regime to regain weapons of mass destruction in the absence of the inspectors for the last four years." Armitage heaped praise on NATO, saying the alliance had been "fantastic" since the September 11 attacks on the United States, even though its support has been political rather than military. "I wanted to discuss again the absolute vital nature of the NATO alliance to the United States and, I think, to freedom of the world," he said after meeting ambassadors of the 19-nation alliance at NATO’s Brussels headquarters. Armitage brushed off as "hypothetical" a question on what role NATO could play in action against Baghdad.(Reuters 1618 260302 GMT Mar 02)

• Leaders of 10 former communist countries seeking to join NATO pledged Tuesday to continue to fight global terrorism, saying stability in their East European region enhanced their chances of becoming members of the alliance. In remarks closing a two-day conference gathering NATO hopefuls, Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said the region and the military alliance could cooperate to make Eastern Europe "a stronghold against the threats of the new century, terrorism, trans-border and organized crime, intolerance and extremism." Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman told the leaders the alliance was more than just a military group. "There are two necessary conditions (for membership): Sharing common values not just common weapons and participating in the common fight against terrorism not just by words, but by deeds," he said.(AP 261446 Mar 02 GMT)

ISAF

• The United States and France told the UN Security Council bluntly on Tuesday that the international security force in Afghanistan would not expand beyond the capital of Kabul where it is now stationed. While U.S. officials and European envoys have acknowledged as much, French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte and U.S. representative James Cunningham made it official during an all-day council meeting on Afghanistan, thereby dashing hopes of Afghan and UN officials for a larger peacekeeping force. "As for geographic expansion of the force, beyond Kabul and its surrounding areas, the position of the principal contributors is clear: they oppose this," Levitte said. "The most important priority is therefore to train the Afghan army and police force. An army must be created that is free of ethnic or regional divisions, warlords and the games of political groups," he told the council. "Norway will work with council members to ensure the timely extension of ISAF’s mandate beyond June," said visiting Norwegian Foreign minister Jan Petersen, whose country holds the Security Council’s rotating presidency for March.(Reuters 2218 260302 GMT Mar 02)

 FINAL ITEM