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NATO

¨         Hungary is thinking of asking Russia to deliver large AN-70 cargo planes as part of its debt payments and to help Budapest build up its military in order to meet NATO obligations, said Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz according to an AFP dispatch. The minister reportedly added that this would only be one option to boost Hungary's air delivery capacity, a pledge the country intends to fulfill.

¨         AFP reports that Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi said that a Bulgarian firm which illegally exported military spare parts, possibly to Iraq, has considerably weakened the country's chances of joining NATO. But President Georgy Parvanov reportedly said he still believes "the decision in Prague will be positive for the country, despite certain worries, because Bulgaria deserves its invitation." The director of the firm and his deputies have been arrested on Tuesday.

NATO SUMMIT

¨         According to The Times, President Lukashenko yesterday threatened to flood the European Union with drugs and illegal immigrants if he is refused entry to the NATO summit in Prague. Belarus is in a position to make good on its threats since it has about 150,000 would-be emigrants, including refugees from Cechnya in its territory. The Ukraine's President too, the newspaper added, would not be welcome to the summit due to the ongoing investigations on the radar sales to Iraq. But the leaders of both Belarus and Ukraine, the newspaper observes, are theoretically entitled to attend the summit under the terms of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. The rebuff, writes The Daily Telegraph, is especially irritating for Lukashenko as he recently broke ties with Moscow and promised to get his revenge on the Kremlin by joining NATO.

¨         Czech police said on Thursday they have uncovered a plot by five people described as "extremists" to cut power in part of Prague during a NATO summit, the Reuters news agency reports. The group allegedly targeted the summit location and the city's metro system. Up to 12,000 police and soldiers are preparing for the arrival of more than 40 leaders for the key meeting of the Alliance.

¨         An Azeri official said on Wednesday that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, would try to narrow their long-standing dispute over the separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in bi-lateral discussions on the margins of Prague summit, according to AFP. The two presidents will attend the Summit as observers and continue the peace talks.

IRAQ

¨         The Financial Times reported that yesterday Iraq accepted the UN resolution and unconditionally agreed to allow UN inspectors back into the country, while denying it had any weapons of mass destruction. In any case, the real test of Saddam's intentions, as The Times writes, will became clear on December 8, when he is obliged to make a full declaration of any chemical, biological, nuclear or missile weaponry present in his country. The inspectors are due to start their work in earnest by December 23 and report to the UN Security Council by February 21; should they be obstructed, or uncover any weapons of mass destruction not declared, then Iraq will be in "material breach" of its obligations. But the real question at the UN, The Independent observes, is this: who will be the judge of the validity of Iraq's declaration on 8 December, and, furthermore, of the sincerity of  Iraq's cooperation with the inspectors? In a related article from The Washington Post, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was quoted saying: "I think we all agreed that the chief inspectors will be the ones to report serious breaches."

WAR ON TERRORISM

¨         According to the Financial Times, the U.S. Congress yesterday was poised to hand a big victory to President Bush by approving legislation to create a massive new department of homeland security. The new department will bring together 170,000 workers and portions of 22 different government agencies into a super new agency designed to secure the country borders, protect critical infrastructures and coordinate emergency responses to future  terrorist attacks. The White House yesterday endorsed the new bill saying that it would give President Bush "the authority and flexibility he needs to protect the American people."

¨         The Financial Times reported that senior U.S. officials view the alleged Bin Laden's recorded statement as a sign of a likely imminent terrorist attack. The statement, broadcasted by the Arabic television al-Jazeera, is seen by the Financial Times as well as by The Daily Telegraph as an attempt to lay claim to the Palestinian and Iraqi causes, and to divide the U.S. from its western allies. Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia were specifically threatened by the speaker. The Guardian observed that the statement could contain a code ordering new operations and added that at the NATO summit the leaders of NATO will meet to agree to a new, international anti-terrorism force.