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AFGHANISTAN

• The United States said on Tuesday it would consider allowing some military sales to war-torn Afghanistan, but only to help its new government and international peacekeepers restore order there. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher announced the new policy in a statement that exempted the transitional Afghan government and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from an existing law on international arms trafficking. But he made clear the U.S. was approaching any military sales to Afghanistan with caution. (Reuters 022205 GMT Jul 02)

• The U.S. warplane that may have been responsible for dozens of civilian casualties in southern Afghanistan opened fire because its crew believed they were taking fire from anti-aircraft weapons, a senior American general said Tuesday in Washington. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said many facts about the episode have yet to be learned, including how many people were killed. (AP 022030 Jul 02)

• NATO announced on Tuesday that General William Kernan would step down as the U.S. Army’s Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, and said his post may remain unfilled pending a review of its command structure. Aimed at streamlining a cumbersome system set up at the height of the Cold War, the review could scrap NATO’s Atlantic Command in Norfolk, Virginia, and keep just its European military headquarters outside Mons in southern Belgium. An alliance official said the Pentagon needed the general for other duties as part of the U.S. military’s "transformation" into a leaner and more mobile force for the 21st century. NATO said the committee would consider a proposal not to fill Gen. Kernan’s position "pending agreement on SACLANT’s future" and that meanwhile his deputy would take responsibility for day-to-day operations. (Reuters 021840 GMT Jul 02)

BALKANS

• U.S. envoys circulated a plan in the UN Security Council late on Tuesday they hoped would avert a shutdown of the world body’s mission in Bosnia while satisfying American concerns about a new global war crimes court’s jurisdiction over peacekeepers. Running up against a Wednesday midnight deadline for the peacekeeping mission’s renewal, Security Council diplomats said it was too soon to say if the U.S. plan, which envoys said Britain helped draft, could win the necessary nine votes and not attract a veto. The U.S. draft would give 12 months’ immunity for crimes by peacekeepers from any country that had not yet ratified the treaty establishing the war crimes court. That would give accused peacekeepers ample time to return home to the jurisdiction of their national courts. After 12 months, the court could pursue a peacekeeper only after a vote in the Security Council, where Washington has veto power along with Britain, France, Russia and China. Even as the new draft circulated, council envoys said it was prudent to continue planning for a possible orderly shutdown of the Bosnia mission in the event the compromise failed to garner the needed votes. (Reuters 030027 GMT Jul 02)

• Secretary of State Colin Powell has assured Bosnia that the United States will not withdraw its peacekeeping troops in a row over the powers of a new world court, Bosnia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday in Sarajevo. "I talked late last night to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and I have to say that that conversation was a great encouragement for me. Mr Powell confirmed to me that Americans will not leave with job unfinished," Zlatko Lagumdzija said. (Reuters 021727 GMT Jul 02)

• Germany’s parliament could vote as soon as Friday on extending a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia if the United States blocks renewal of a UN mandate for international police there, officials said on Tuesday in Berlin. "There is a high probability that the mission will not be extended by the UN Security Council. But that should not stop the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, that would be absurd," Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was quoted as saying in the text of an interview with ARD television. Fischer added that in the event of a continued U.S. veto, NATO was likely to re-state that the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia was under its control, and further German parliamentary approval could be based on this decision. (Reuters 021945 GMT Jul 02)
• Kosovo’s prime minister said on Tuesday he hoped the majority ethnic Albanian province would become independent by the time his term of office ends in around three years. Bajram Rexhepi said staying within Serb-dominated Yugoslavia was not an option. He said Kosovo independence would prevent any new conflict erupting and also help boost economic development as it would give the impoverished territory access to crucial credits from Western lending institutions such as the World Bank. Rexhepi said Serbia and an independent Kosovo could live side by side, with freedom of movement across the border. But he said the NATO-led peacekeeping force and the United Nations would need to remain in Kosovo even if it did become independent in a few years’ time. (Reuters 021613 GMT Jul 02)

• Yugoslavia’s parliament reasserted its control over the country’s military intelligence gathering services on Tuesday, passing a law that dismantles the chain of command set up by former President Milosevic. The law reflects efforts by the country’s new leadership to systematically eliminate the levers of power Milosevic used to control the country. Under the measure, the army’s intelligence services must report to the country’s civilian leaders, including the parliament and the government. (AP 021903 Jul 02)

• Russia’s defense minister assured a visiting U.S. Senate delegation on Tuesday that the Russian military’s nuclear materials were well safeguarded, and he urged the swift ratification of the two nations’ new strategic arms reduction agreement. Sergei Ivanov urged the senators not to allow any foot-dragging on ratifying the treaty, and said he would encourage Russian legislators as well to act quickly. "As defense minister, I am confident that Russian weapons are stored securely, and there have been no leakages of nuclear weapons," he added. However, he said Russia would accept any further assistance gratefully. (AP 021632 Jul 02)

• Canada said on Wednesday the United States runs the risk of killing off the United Nations’ entire peacekeeping effort if it continues its campaign against the new global war crimes court. "The fact that it is maintaining the possibility of a veto means that it may be taking the position that its veto will apply to all peacekeepers from all nations, even in those (UN missions) where the United States is not present," said Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham in Ottawa. Canadian officials said the United States should have simply withdrawn its personnel from the Bosnia mission rather than vetoing it. (Reuters 021910 GMT Jul 02)

• Iraq says there will be some "concrete results" from new talks starting on Thursday with Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan believes it’s time for a "concrete understanding on the return of inspectors" who have been barred from Iraq for 3 1/2 years, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Monday. (AP 030332 Jul 02)

 FINAL ITEM