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• President Bush arrived in Berlin on Wednesday, opening a weeklong trip to Europe to shore up support for expanding the war on terrorism and sign a landmark arms control treaty with Russia. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters on the Air Force One presidential jet that Bush’s message to the German Bundestag -- parliament -- on Thursday would be one of "strength in the face of terrorism". "Even though we’ve had some initial successes, there’s still danger for countries which embrace freedom, countries such as ours, or Germany, France, Russia, or Italy," Bush said before leaving Washington. "As an alliance, we must continue to fight against global terror. We’ve got to be tough." U.S. Secretary of State Powell told journalists at Tegel airport that topics for discussion in Germany would include Iraq, Afghanistan, trade and the arms treaty with Russia.(Reuters 1935 220502 May 02 GMT)

• The Security Council has informally agreed to keep a multinational force in Kabul for another six months but rejected repeated requests from Afghanistan’s leaders to expand its operations throughout the country. The council scheduled a vote Thursday morning on a U.S.-sponsored resolution that would extend the authorization for the 4,650-strong ISAF after its initial six-month mandate ends on June 20. While declaring that "the situation in Afghanistan still constitutes a threat to international peace and security," the draft resolution says "the responsibility for providing security and law and order throughout the country resides with the Afghans themselves." The United States and other council members "feel that the security situation in Afghanistan at the moment does not warrant an expansion of the international force," a U.S. official explained, speaking on condition of anonymity. Instead, the international community is focusing on rebuilding and reforming Afghanistan’s army, police force and judicial system.(AP 230303 May 02 GMT)

• The Montenegrin parliament on Wednesday passed a no-confidence vote in the government of the Yugoslav republic, a widely expected move which sets the scene for talks on forming a new coalition. The government had in effect already collapsed before the vote as Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic tendered his resignation last month, bowing to pressure from a party angry at a decision to shelve independence plans for Montenegro. Vujanovic, a senior member of President Milo Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), said he believed a new government may be formed within days. "The DPS will very soon start an initiative for the creation of a new government," he told reporters after the vote. "In the following days the new government will probably be formed." Forty deputies in the 77-seat assembly voted for the no-confidence motion and 29 opposed it. Under the constitution, Djukanovic can now either nominate a new prime minister or call early parliamentary elections. The outgoing government will continue in a caretaker capacity. (Reuters 1844 220502 May 02 GMT)

• Since first meeting President Bush a year ago, Russian President Putin has firmly steered his country toward the West, but his ambitions in the East trouble Washington and could lead to some testy talk at this week’s U.S.-Russian summit. Putin moved quickly to condemn the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and that goodwill helped pave the way for the arms control agreement that is to be signed Friday in the Kremlin and a new NATO-Russia agreement to be initialed next week in Rome. With two major agreements aimed at improving ties with his country’s former enemies in the West in less than a week, Putin will be seeking to improve economic, transport and energy ties at a European-Union-Russia summit that comes only a day after the NATO-Russia summit. Putin will press for even closer economic relations with the West at the G-8 summit in Canada in late June, where he will meet Bush for the sixth time. "The series of summits in May and June may help get rid of the legacy of the Cold War, ending Russia’s isolation and bringing it back into Europe," Sergei Markov, director of the Institute for Political Research, said this week. "There is a chance now for real partnership," Sergei Rogov, the head of the USA-Canada Institute said Wednesday. "Now Russia and the United States can become partners, even allies," stressed the Izvestia daily, echoing other major Russian newspapers.(AP 230116 May 02 GMT)

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