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 WAR ON TERRORISM

• The United States, increasingly watchful of support for its anti-terrorism campaign, on Monday hailed Greece’s capture of a November 17 guerrilla suspect and discovery of the elusive group’s lair. But Washington made clear it wanted more before it would judge Athens fully effective in the war against terrorism. (Reuters 082035 GMT Jul 02)

• Peacekeepers in the Afghan capital agreed on Monday to help the government investigate the assassination of one of the country’s ministers and vice presidents and said it would step up security in the city. "The government requested ISAF to assist in the investigation of the assassination," ISAF spokesman Col. Samet Oz told reporters. "We have accepted this request and we have already started work on this issue." He did not elaborate on what kind of help the International Security Assistance Force would give. (Reuters 081910 GMT Jul 02)

• As the U.S. combat mission narrows in Afghanistan, the United States is under pressure to use the 7,000 American troops as more of a security force for the fragile Afghan government. Kenneth Bacon, president of Refugees International and a former assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said Monday he hoped the administration would change its mind about not putting American troops in the International Security Assistance Force of peacekeepers in Kabul. "They certainly should be rethinking their position on security," Bacon said. "Unfortunately, I don’t think they are." President Bush aides said on Monday that the administration sees no reason to change course in Afghanistan, and they stuck to their view that the only way to achieve long-term stability there is to help the Afghans help themselves. (AP 082138 Jul 02)

NATO

• NATO’s governing political body, the North Atlantic Council, arrived in Ukraine on Monday for talks on deepening the former Soviet republic’s partnership with the alliance ahead of the NATO-Ukraine Summit in November. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson and the permanent representatives of the alliance’s 19 member nations are to meet Tuesday with President Kuchma. Ukrainian officials plan to discuss their country’s bid to enter NATO ahead of the NATO-Ukraine summit in Prague in November. No new agreements are planned to be signed, Ukraine’s representative to NATO, Volodymyr Khandohiy, said Monday. (AP 081816 Jul 02)

EU

• France assured Russia on Monday it wanted to help find a "pragmatic" solution to the impasse over Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave that will be encircled by the European Union after the bloc enlarges. But French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, after talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov, gave no indication of what ground, if any, the European Union was prepared to concede. (Reuters 081646 GMT Jul 02)

BALKANS

• Montenegro’s pro-independence leader warned on Monday that a European Union-brokered deal on rearranging the Yugoslav federation could collapse if anyone tries to tinker with the plan. Milo Djukanovic alleged that there are "attempts" to force the two Yugoslav republics of Montenegro and Serbia to forge a close union. President Djukanovic did not specify what the "attempts" were to change the plan. (AP 081933 Jul 02)

• Hundreds of protesters blocked the highway from Skopje to Tetovo on Monday, demanding information about 13 Macedonian (sic) civilians who disappeared during last year’s ethnic conflict. The protesters, led by relatives of the missing, were disappointed by an eagerly awaited report from an independent international commission. The report was issued on Monday but failed to shed any light on fate of their loved ones. The report from the commission, formed on the initiative of the European Union, said it failed to find the missing because both sides were withholding crucial information. (Reuters 081559 GMT Jul 02)

OTHER NEWS

• Turning up the heat on Washington, the UN Security Council agreed on Monday to stage a public debate this week on U.S. demands for immunity for its peacekeepers from the reach of a new global war crimes court. Council diplomats privately predicted the marathon session, scheduled for Wednesday, would increase pressure on the United States to back away from its demands. The vast majority of the 189 UN member-nations strongly oppose the U.S. stand. (Reuters 081923 GMT Jul 02)

• The United States said on Monday that the failure of talks between Iraq and the United Nations last week showed that Washington was right to suspect that Iraq is working on weapons of mass destruction. The failure of the talks with the United Nations could strengthen the case of those U.S. officials who advocate military action to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. (Reuters 082149 GMT Jul 02)

• Iraq is cultivating ties with Ukraine in its efforts to rebuild its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, Britain’s Financial Times newspaper said on Tuesday. "For some years there was an intensive defence-technology relationship between Ukraine and Iraq," the paper quoted former UN weapons inspector Timothy McCarthy as saying. "This appears to be re-emerging and we don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past," said McCarthy, now with the Monterey Institute for International Studies. The report is the first part of a three-month investigation by the newspaper into the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq, Iran and North Korea. It concludes that the three countries are actively trying to procure nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. (Reuters 090200 GMT Jul 02)

 FINAL ITEM