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• Premier Silvio Berlusconi boasted Sunday of Italy’s role in forging this week’s NATO-Russia summit, saying the meeting signaled the end of the Cold War and would contribute to world peace. An article penned by Berlusconi for Italian newspapers was released as officials announced fresh security measures: no Italian airline will operate flights into or out of Rome’s airport during Tuesday’s summit. Rome’s other airport, Ciampino, will also be closed to commercial air traffic and roads and beaches will be off-limits to the public part of the high security measures in place for the one-day summit. In his article, Berlusconi said the Italian government had played a key role in forging the summit part of its efforts to "accelerate the process of the opening and integration of world politics."(AP 262002 May 02 GMT)

• Two days after Ukraine declared its intention to seek membership in NATO, a group of NATO experts arrived in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Sunday for talks with Ukrainian military leaders. NATO representatives are expected to discuss reforming Ukraine's armed forces and cooperation under the alliance’s Partnership for Peace program for nonmember nations, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. National Security and Defense Council head Yevhen Marchuk declared Thursday that this former Soviet republic will start the process to apply for membership in NATO. Ukraine intends to officially inform NATO of its decision on July 9 during a visit to the capital Kiev by alliance Secretary-General Robertson, Marchuk said.(AP 261600 May 02 GMT)

 BALKANS

• A Macedonian (sic) army convoy came under fire Saturday while en route to a border outpost near the volatile boundary with neighboring Yugoslavia’s Kosovo province, the military said. No one was injured in the attack and a brief fire-fight that ensued. An army spokesman, Col. Blagoja Markovski said that unidentified assailants hurled three grenades and opened machine-gun fire at the convoy traveling to the Tanusevci border post, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Skopje. Macedonian (sic) soldiers returned fire and repelled the attack as assailants scattered into the nearby woods, said Markovski. One military vehicle sustained minor damage, he added. NATO did not immediately comment the incident Saturday.(AP 251951 May 02 GMT)

• NATO on Friday dismissed a Macedonian (sic) army account of how ethnic Albanian gunmen launched a heavy attack on an army post by the border with UN-governed Kosovo. "There might have been an incident but clearly not in the dimension and not in that kind as it was mentioned," said General Heinz Georg Keerl, commander of NATO’s peacekeeping mission. The army said on Thursday "Albanian terrorists" had attacked a border post with machineguns and hand-held rocket launchers, describing it as one of the most serious incidents directed at its forces since last year's guerrilla insurgency. The soldiers returned fire and after a one-hour gun battle the attackers fled towards nearby mountains, a spokesman said. Keerl said a NATO fact-finding team had visited the spot and had not found evidence of a fierce gun battle. "There is no impact, no cases or other indicators of a heavy fight. I’m quite confident on the facts on the ground that we did not have a major incident as it was described," he told reporters. But the NATO general said he did not believe Macedonian (sic) authorities had made the incident up. "If you have a nervous guard post on the ground, he might be tempted to overdo his report up the chain of command and the picture that ends up there is not entirely as it happened on the ground," he said.(Reuters 1616 240502 May 02 GMT)

ISAF

• The first batch of Turkish forces has arrived to pave the way for more than 1,000 colleagues who will come to Afghanistan next month when Britain hands over control of the international mission guarding Kabul, a military spokesman Saturday. Sixty-five Turkish military personnel arrived Friday at Kabul Airport, including communications and airport specialists, said British Flight Lt. Jol Fall, spokesman for the ISAF. He said they represented "a start before the main arrival of the Turkish forces." Maj. Murat Pekgulec, a spokesman for the Turkish force, said the next group will arrive Tuesday with equipment, followed by the first large group of soldiers about June 3. Eventually, the Turkish contingent will include 1,200 troops, he said.(AP 250732 May 02 GMT)

 FINAL ITEM