Military

WAR ON TERRORISM

¨         The chairman of the U.S. interagency task force on terrorist financing expressed dismay on Tuesday over what he called Europe's inability to see the Islamic militant Hamas organisation as a "terrorist group." The military wing of Hamas, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades is on the European Union's list of banned "terrorist" organizations. But U.S. Treasury General Counsel David Aufhauser said many European governments had not designated Hamas itself as a terrorist group or frozen its assets because they insisted on making a distinction between its military and charitable wings. "That logic, with all due respect, is sophistry," he said in a videolink news conference to three European cities. An EU official declined to comment on the U.S. official's remarks, but noted that the 15-nation bloc's blacklist is constantly under review and is revised by consensus. (Reuters 261847 GMT Nov 02)

¨         Radical Islamic groups operating in the North Caucasus pose a significant danger to Russia's security, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Tuesday in Vladikavkaz. "We have failed to completely cut off all channels of financial support for the rebels in the North Caucasus as well as the supply of weapons, ammunition and other material," Ivanov told the top brass of the Russian armed forces on Tuesday, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Ivanov told the military that the insurgents are "actively supported and financed by Islamic circles from abroad" and that radical Islamic rebels are being sent to fight Russian forces, according to the Interfax news agency. (AP 261704 Nov 02)

IRAQ

¨         American requests for help in the event of war with Iraq are designed to show the nation's seriousness of purpose, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday in Washington. He said about 50 countries around the world had been approached for help by message or by U.S. diplomats in their capitals. He declined to say whether Russia or Arab countries were among the countries approached. (AP 262318 Nov 02)

¨         Germany will provide Israel with Patriot anti-missile systems, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was quoted Tuesday as saying, indicating that Germany wants to help Israel defend against any Iraqi attack if war erupts in the Middle East. "If Israel needs an increase in security, we will help - and on time," Schroeder was quoted as saying by the weekly Die Zeit. (AP 261931 Nov 02)

¨         A Bahraini Cabinet minister, whose country hosts U.S. naval command staff, says it and other Arab states haven't been asked to gear up for a possible U.S.-Iraq war. "The United States isn't putting pressure on Bahrain or any Arab country to mobilize militarily to get ready for an Iraq war," Bahraini Cabinet Affairs Minister Mohammed al-Mutawwa said in Cairo on Tuesday after meeting the Arab League chief. In Jordan on Tuesday, a government spokesman said his country also had not received any request from the United States to help in a war against Iraq. (AP 261357 Nov 02)

AFGHANISTAN

¨         A rocket slammed into an area near the Finance Ministry in the eastern part of Kabul on Tuesday, and international peacekeepers said they were investigating. There were no immediate signs of casualties or damages. (AP 261653 Nov 02)

EU

¨         Greece sees the new Turkish government, with its Islamist roots, as a possible prototype for emulation in the wider Islamic world, Foreign Minister George Papandreou said on Tuesday. The European Union should encourage the reformist trend in the new government by offering the prospect of membership and setting a date for accession talks at a European summit in Copenhagen on Dec. 12, Papandreou told reporters in Washington, where he is holding two days of talks with Bush administration officials. "If we can prove that an Islamic country, which I very much believe, can also be a European country, a democratic country, this would be a very strong signal to a wider Islamic world, and that is another reason why we are in favor of seeing this European progress with Turkey," he said. (Reuters 262248 GMT Nov 02)

BALKANS

¨         The European Union's fledgling rapid reaction force should consider taking command of the peacekeeping force in Bosnia instead of that in Macedonia (sic), German Defence Minister Peter Struck said on Tuesday in Berlin. He said that he had discussed with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana the idea of the EU force taking over command of SFOR in Bosnia from the United States as its mandate had longer to run, giving more time to settle the Turkey-Greece dispute. "This is a mandate that will last longer, in that sense it is a more 'attractive' mandate than Macedonia (sic)," he said in a speech to the association representing German soldiers. Minister Struck also said that, rather than continuing to rotate the command of the multinational force in Afghanistan, NATO should take over after Germany and the Netherlands complete their six-month command of the mission due to start in February. Peter Struck said he had discussed the idea with NATO General-Secretary George Robertson and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who seemed interested but was not that committed. Germany would raise the proposal with Afghan President Hamid Karzai when he visited Germany next week, Struck said, but admitted the idea had met with resistance from France. (Reuters 261317 GMT Nov 02)

¨         Amid reports that top Yugoslav officials knew about illegal arms trade with Iraq but did nothing to stop it, a top army official said Tuesday the military had not approved the deals that violated a UN embargo against the Arab state. Yugoslav Defense Minister Velimir Radojevic said Tuesday that "the state - that is, the Defense Ministry - has not been involved in the illegal arms trade." He was reacting to a draft report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, published by Belgrade media, which said that top Yugoslav officials, including Radojevic and President Vojislav Kostunica, knew of the illicit arms trade with Iraq and other countries, but did nothing to stop it. Meanwhile, a former director of a Yugoslav company that produces military equipment said Tuesday that Iraqi weapons experts "in recent months" had visited the Krusik firm, located in the central Serbian town of Valjevo. The cooperation with Iraqis "intensified after U.S. ... airstrikes against Iraqi installations" in the 1990s, he said, according to the Beta news agency. (AP 261613 Nov 02)

¨         The Yugoslav army, battling financial and political difficulties as it struggles to adapt to the postwar era, will slash its troops from 75,000 to 45,000 over the next decade, the foreign minister said Tuesday in Belgrade. Goran Svilanovic said that as a part of envisaged army reforms, the number of soldiers can be reduced to between 60,000 and 65,000 over the next year alone. He added that the new army would be much better armed and equipped than today. (AP 261302 Nov 02)

¨         Giving in to international pressure, Macedonian (sic) authorities agreed Tuesday to respect the authority of the UN war crimes tribunal in investigating atrocities committed during last year's ethnic conflict. Last week, a delegation of European Union, NATO and other Western officials urged the government to respect the peace accord. (AP 261936 Nov 02)

OTHER NEWS

¨         A UN nuclear watchdog will urge North Korea to open its atomic weapons programme to inspections, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday, a move that would boost pressure on Pyongyang but could offer it a way out of isolation. Diplomatic sources in Tokyo said the Board of Governors of the 137-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would issue a statement urging the inspections at its meeting in Vienna on Thursday. (Reuters 270406 GMT Nov 02)