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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday he would visit NATO headquarters in Brussels next week to attend the first session of the new NATO-Russian Council. NATO declared Russia a limited partner at Tuesday's summit at a military base near Rome, attended by leaders of 19 alliance members and Russia. The new council will have Russia and NATO jointly tackling such issues as crisis management, peacekeeping, search-and-rescue operations and joint exercises. "It's more than just reaching a decision together, it also means that everybody is committed to implementing these decisions together," British Maj. Gen. Peter Williams, head of the newly opened NATO mission in Moscow, said on Echo of Moscow radio Wednesday (AP 291340 may 02GMT)

Taking a tougher approach than during meetings with U.S. President George W. Bush or NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin won a major victory Wednesday when the European Union agreed to recognize Russia as a market economy. But relations between Russia and its biggest trading partner remain tense as the Kremlin fears EU expansion will infringe on Russia's Baltic enclave Kaliningrad, isolating the lonely outpost even more from the Russian mainland. The EU is also pressing Russia to use its position straddling Europe and Asia to crack down on illegal immigration, an issue that dominates voter concern throughout western Europe, and to move quicker in reforming its monopolistic gas market. "At present, we are witnessing only the beginning of real, mutual cooperation," European Commission President Romano Prodi said at the end of the one-day summit. "We can get closer." (AP 291624 may 02GM)

Parliament on Wednesday rejected a recent resolution by Kosovo legislators that challenged the validity of the border dividing the Yugoslav province from Macedonia (sic) .Last week's proposed legislation by Kosovo Albanian lawmakers has already been overturned by the United Nations, which supervises Kosovo. The legislators were angry at an agreement between Belgrade and Skopje that they said gave 2,500 hectares (6,100 acres) of Kosovo land to Macedonia (sic) .The border runs through the most volatile region of the Balkans. (AP 291801 may 02GMT )

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