Military

NATO

¨         NATO Secretary General Robertson said on Friday the alliance was poised to improve its ability to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction and urged members new and old to adopt the same approach.    Robertson told a meeting of the alliance's Parliamentary Assembly in Istanbul that the Prague summit would also mark an increased NATO commitment to stopping the spread of nuclear and biological weapons. "At Prague, NATO will unveil a major package of measures to combat terrorism," Robertson said.    "We will take decisions to broaden our range of tools to cope with this threat. Developing vaccine stockpiles or mobile detection labs are not the stuff of headline news but the strategic importance of these developments is beyond doubt," he said.(Reuters 1510 151102 Nov 02 GMT)

NATO SUMMIT

¨         President Bush leaves this week for a NATO summit in Prague, where European unease over war with Iraq and new terrorism warnings may overshadow the agenda of reshaping the alliance. "The alliance itself, of which the (military) organization is only a tool, remains in disarray," said Simon Safray, director of European studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Members differ over the need to urgently disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, which Bush has pressed for months, eventually winning support for renewed inspections from the United Nations.  Brookings Institution analyst Ivo Daalder said Europeans remain convinced "force is fundamentally a last resort."  The United States, Daalder said, has shown in its Iraq policy, and earlier in Kosovo, that it views "force as a first resort or at least as an early resort."     That debate is likely to play out as well in such issues as organizing and leading any rapid reaction force, said the Brookings' Philip Gordon.(Reuters 2029 171102 Nov 02 GMT)

¨         Czech police, amid heightened security fears across Europe, have stepped up their presence approaching this week's NATO summit in Prague. U.S. soldiers have begun to arrive to set up logistics for patrols by U.S. warplanes, while local media report unconfirmed international undercover police operations looking for any signs of attempts to disrupt the summit.     U.S. and European intelligence officials in recent days have stepped up warnings about possible terror attacks against European targets.  About 12,000 anti-globalization demonstrators and activists opposed to NATO, many of them arriving from abroad, were expected for a week of protests. "What we are most worried about, is a few people that could show up within a crowd of hundreds that plan some type of terrorist actions," one western diplomat said.(Reuters1504 171102 Nov 02 GMT)

¨         The Czech Republic on Friday refused a visa request from Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko who had threatened to gatecrash a NATO summit in Prague next week.  NATO officials have said Lukashenko is unwelcome at the summit because of his autocratic rule and opposition to Alliance enlargement.  Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said the visa was being denied on the grounds Belarus does not respect human rights.(Reuters 1515 151102 Nov 02 GMT)

BALKANS

¨         NATO-led peacekeepers said on Saturday they had have uncovered evidence that the Bosnian Serb army has more attack helicopters than it is permitted under a deal that ended the country's 1992-95 war. The NATO-led peacekeeping force, known as SFOR, made its discovery 10 days ago during a routine inspection of the Zaluzani military airfield near the Bosnian Serb administrative center of Banja Luka, a statement issued Saturday said. "While there were seven Gazelle attack helicopters easily identifiable, which are permitted under the peace agreement regulations, it appeared that a further seven purporting to be medical helicopters were fitted for the attack helicopter role," SFOR said, without elaborating. The Bosnian Serb army declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation. (AP 161312 Nov 02 GMT)

¨         Macedonia's (sic) president expressed regret Saturday that his country has been excluded from a group of countries likely to join NATO at a summit next week and called the decision "unfair." "It is unfair that Macedonia (sic)  will not be invited in Prague," Boris Trajkovski said in an interview with state-run radio. "Macedonia has shown functional partnership with NATO in the last decade." He suggested the country should be allowed to join now because it had allowed the alliance to use its territory in the 1999 war against neighboring Yugoslavia. "This enlargement of NATO is the best that has happened in Europe since the fall of the Berlin wall," Trajkovski said, adding that Macedonia (sic) remained "firmly committed to joining NATO in a next expansion."(AP 161827 Nov 02 GMT)

IRAQ

¨         UN inspectors fly to Iraq on Monday, resuming the search for alleged weapons of mass destruction in a mission that could determine whether the Gulf is plunged into a new war. President Bush has warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that failure to cooperate with the inspectors will bring on an American attack. Saddam faces a three-week deadline to reveal his weapons of mass destruction or provide convincing evidence he no longer has any. Chief UN inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei, who oversees the International Atomic Energy Agency, flew to Cyprus from Vienna, Austria on Sunday, joining about two dozen other members of the advance team assembling here to prepare for resumption of inspections. "The question of war and peace remains first of all in the hands of Iraq, the Security Council and the members of the Security Council," Blix said.(AP 180422 Nov 02 GMT)