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 NATO

• AFP quotes Turkish Officials as announcing that the SACEUR General Ralston, is due to meet Army Chief Huseyin Kivrikoglu and Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu on his visit to Turkey, Monday and Tuesday next week. The report adds that the visit comes as the country prepares to take command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

• In the frame of the Mediterranean Dialogue, six NATO warships wound up port calls in Algeria on Thursday, following four days of diplomacy and exercises while a de-mining flotilla of eight ships also visited Casablanca from where they left on Wednesday, Stars and Stripes reports. The Algiers visit marked the first time the alliance visited an Algerian port, while the exercise conducted in the area was "a simple escort into the harbor, followed by a simple exchange of procedures, simple cross-training," Royal Marine Capt. Mark Oden, an AFSOUTH spokesman, is quoted as saying. The daily notes that the six ships belong to the NATO’s Standing Naval Force Mediterranean, which recently completed six months of anti-terrorism patrols. According to a NATO press release, the daily continues, crews from the ships were scheduled to tour the areas, meet with local officials and even speak to local schools.

Noting that ending an unprecedented deployment to patrol the U.S. skies, seven NATO AWACS radar planes returned home, AFP quotes President Bush as thanking "NATO for the steadfast support and cooperation after the attacks on September 11." The report further quotes him as stressing that the deployment "coupled with the declaration that the attacks on the U.S. were attacks on all NATO members and affirmed NATO’s commitment to collective defense."

After the Reykjavik summit, Moscow Kommersant  wrote that it is convenient for NATO to speak about a breakthrough in its relations with Russia and it is not in Moscow’s interests to deny this. In actual fact, in Reykjavik Russia and NATO took only just another step to meet each other half-way and some people may say that Russia has sold its agreement to the alliance’s enlargement too cheaply, but what were the alternatives?, the daily stressed.  Moscow had every reason to hope for deeper integration within the alliance’s structures as after 11 September Russia proved that it can be a reliable and effective partner of the West, wrote the articles, while NATO's significance, on the contrary, was devalued by the inability of the European allies of the U.S. (with the exception of Britain) to become fully involved in the antiterrorist campaign declared by Washington, which realized that, they can easily manage without both the political and military support of the Alliance.  And that being the case, Washington realized that there would be no particular harm in increasing the Russian presence in such a mechanism as NATO that is not too effective, the daily charged.

BALKANS

• EU Foreign Policy Chief Solana expressed his concern over the slow implementation of an accord reached by Serbia and Montenegro to dissolve the Yugoslav federation and form a new union and called on their leaders to "fulfill their obligations quickly and resolutely." In an article published today in the Belgrade daily Blic and the Montenegrin daily Vijesti, Solana wrote: "I have recently become aware of a risk of losing forward momentum. Federal Parliament delayed debate on the accord... and there is a tendency to promote one-sided interpretations of the agreement and to prejudice its implementation." He added that was concerned with such developments as "it would be opposite to the interests of the people of the two republics if progress towards the new constitution became a victim of a rivalry among political factions."

AFGHANISTAN

• A British-led force of some 1,000 troops is battling a "substantial force" of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. CNN quotes the top British commander in the coalition, Brig. Roger Lane, as saying that a force of mostly British marines was mounting a large-scale offensive codenamed "Operation Condor." AP and BBC adds that British soldiers backed by American gunships and attack helicopters were sent to the eastern Paktia province to join Australian troops who came under fire yesterday from suspected Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters in south-eastern Afghanistan.

• The U.S. military plans to install a new Commander of its forces in Afghanistan in order to streamline the Command structure and replace an arrangement in which the various services report to separate regional leaders. A Los Angeles Times’ article carried by Stars and Stripes names Lt. General Dan McNeill – commander of the 18^th Airborne corps – as the Officer expected to occupy the new post and it adds that the change was ordered by Gen. Franks, to whom Lt. Gen. McNeill has to report.

• In an interview carried by the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar warned that that the war in Afghanistan has only entered a new phase, bin Laden is still alive and the future of the U.S. in Afghanistan is "fire, hell and total defeat." "We don’t consider the battle ended in Afghanistan ... the battle has begun and its fires are picking up. These fires will reach the White House" for its war on Islam, AP quotes the daily as writing. Omar was further quoted as saying: "we decided to pull out from the country and start a guerrilla warfare from the mountains so we can protect the lives of the poor struggling people."

NMD

• President Bush will propose next week that Russia and the U.S. join forces to develop the "Star Wars" missile defense system in a move that will further enshrine new strategic links between the two nations, The Times writes. The daily notes that the proposals have been discussed in detail by officials from both countries and stresses that it mark a dramatic shift in President Putin’s stance on the National Missile Defense system. President Bush and Putin will disclose at a meeting in Russia next week that they are to set up a joint committee to develop NMD and they will further sign a treaty to cut both countries’ nuclear arsenals by thousands of warheads, the daily continues. It further quotes President Bush as describing that week as "signaling the end of the Cold War."

 FINAL ITEM