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WAR ON TERRORISM

• The leaders of Russia, China and four Central Asian nations have converged on Russia’s imperial capital for a summit intended to bolster the status of their security group and tighten efforts to fight terrorism. Russian President Putin is using the summit on Friday in St.Petersburg to assure China that his efforts to build closer ties with the West do not threaten Russia’s burgeoning ties with Beijing. Putin, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are to sign the charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization - a document that would give the group a formal international legal status. The six leaders are also expected to form a joint body to coordinate their efforts to combat terrorism in the region. (AP 070010 Jun 02)

• President on Thursday will propose creating a new department of homeland security to concentrate on protecting the United States from future attacks like those on Sept. 11, the White House said. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the agency, which would require congressional approval and have Cabinet rank, would focus on four areas: border and transport security, emergency preparedness and response, bioterrorism countermeasures and infrastructure protection. (Reuters 061425 GMT Jun 02)

• Seeking ways to prevent terrorists from using container shipping to stage attacks, U.S. and Hong Kong customs, security, trade and marine officials met Thursday in China to discuss how to improve port security. Hong Kong’s container terminals are among the busiest in the world and are the biggest port-of-origin for U.S. bound shipping, sending about 1.6 million containers each year. (AP 061515 Jun 02)

NATO

• Ukrainian officials plan to produce a specific outline in July of their country’s bid to enter NATO that can be presented at the alliance’s summit in Prague this fall, an official said Thursday in Kiev. Ukrainian authorities expect to discuss how to "qualitatively deepen relations with NATO," said Ihor Kharchenko, deputy state secretary of the Foreign Ministry. (AP 061809 Jun 02)

EU

• NATO surveillance aircraft will protect a European Union summit in Seville later this month, Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo said on Thursday in Brussels. Trillo told reporters "one or two" AWACS planes would patrol the skies of the Andalucian city during the June 21-22 meeting. (Reuters 061831 GMT Jun 02)

• The three Benelux countries have rejected a call by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for an elected president of the European Union’s council of member states, a document obtained by Reuters on Thursday showed. It brings the EU closer to the citizens of the country holding the presidency and also gives its government and diplomatic service valuable experience in dealing with the whole raft of issues facing Europe, the memorandum said. The rotating presidency enshrines the principle of equality among member states regardless of size, the Benelux added. (Reuters 061917 GMT Jun 02)

BALKANS

• Cutbacks to the international peacekeeping force in the Balkans won’t weaken its determination to act against war-crimes suspects or terrorist cells operating in the region, NATO defense ministers said Thursday in Brussels. "The alliance will remain engaged with local authorities to ensure that the region does not become a safe haven or way station for terrorists," the ministers said in a statement. The ministers insisted "NATO remains committed to security and stability in the Balkans." (AP 061621 Jun 02)

• NATO-led peacekeepers in Bosnia on Thursday scotched reports that top war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic had made contact with them, saying a letter they had received was not from him but from his wife. Clarifying earlier remarks by an official of the SFOR peace force indicating the document came from Karadzic himself, a spokeswoman for the force said it had been written and delivered by his wife Ljiljana, as an answer to a letter SFOR sent to her husband. NATO sources said it contained no offer by the fugitive former Bosnian Serb leader to surrender to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. (Reuters 061527 GMT Jun 02)

• Serbs and other minorities who fled from war in Kosovo should leave Germany and return to help rebuild their homeland, security officials said Thursday, and warned that those that refuse could be deported before the end of the year. Refugees from Afghanistan were also urged to return home voluntarily, by Interior Minister Otto Schily and his counterparts from Germany’s 16 states at a meeting in the northern port of Bremerhaven. Schily said a German delegation recently visited Kosovo and believed preparations for the refugees to return could begin, though he promised that the cases of Serbs refugees will be examined individually to establish whether they would be at risk. (AP 061910 Jun 02)

OTHER NEWS

• U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney singled out Iraq in calling on Thursday for a decisive response to counter a growing danger of terrorist groups acquiring weapons of mass destruction from sympathetic states. Cheney reiterated U.S. concerns over the possibility militant groups such as al Qaeda would "link up" with governments developing weapons of mass destruction. "A regime that hates America and everything we stand for must never be permitted to threaten America with weapons of mass destruction," he added. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Brussels on Thursday that NATO could not wait until it had absolute proof of a threat to act against terrorists aggressively seeking biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. He told NATO it must improve its protective measures and go on the offensive because a terror attack could occur at any time. "Absolute proof cannot be precondition for action," Rumsfeld told NATO defense ministers in Brussels, according to an outline of his presentation. The ministers discussed specific countries that Washington says are developing weapons of mass destruction and could pose a threat to allies. (Reuters 070145 GMT Jun 02)

• British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Thursday that a joint Anglo-American military monitoring force in Kashmir was "an option being considered" to avert war between India and Pakistan. Hoon was responding to a report in Britain’s Independent newspaper that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would propose sending 500 helicopter-borne troops to patrol the Line of Control which divides the nuclear-armed rivals in Kashmir. (Reuters 061847 GMT Jun 02)

• Russian lawmakers may start debating a landmark nuclear arms treaty as early as next week, a senior Russian legislator said Thursday in Moscow. The lower house of parliament is expected to consider a draft of a document outlining members’ general position on the treaty on June 14, Dmitry Rogozin, head of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. (AP 061837 Jun 02)

 FINAL ITEM