NATO Seen Backing Russia Ties To Form Broad Front

`It is important that NATO moves to re-establish the NATO-Russia Council`, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

NATO was set on Thursday to back a resumption of formal ties with Russia as Washington and its allies seek a broad front in their battle against Afghan militants and other threats.

The Bush administration led NATO's suspension of formal dialogue in the joint NATO-Russia Council (NRC) after Moscow's incursion into Georgia last August, but President Barack Obama's White House team has made clear it wants to turn a new page.

"It is important that NATO moves to re-establish the NATO-Russia Council," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on arrival at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

"Russia needs the West as much as the West needs to re-engage with Russia," he told reporters, adding that restarting formal ties was the way to deal with concerns.

While stressing that concerns remain over Russian actions, U.S. and NATO officials have emphasised shared interests, including the struggle against Islamist militancy in Afghanistan and elsewhere and concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"We have obvious common interest with Russia: Afghanistan, counter-terrorism, the fight against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and others," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in opening remarks.

He added: "We are not shying away at all from the serious differences of opinion that remain between NATO and Russia, in particular about Georgia."

Hillary Clinton, making her first visit to Europe as U.S. Secretary of State, was due to give a picture of the progress of Obama's Afghanistan strategy review and ask allies' views on the best way to deal with a worsening Taliban insurgency, more than seven years into the international intervention there.

Washington is hoping to channel the wave of enthusiasm for Obama in Europe into increased practical assistance from NATO and elsewhere for the Afghan effort.

RUSSIA ALLOWS U.S. SUPPLIES

Lithuania, one of NATO's ex-Soviet members most wary of a more assertive Russia, struck the only negative note on upgrading ties with Moscow.

"At the moment I think it is premature to open the formal dialogue," Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas said, adding that saying NATO should use time before a summit in April to urge more Russian cooperation.

But his Estonian counterpart Urmas Paet backed resumption of ties: "We will not block because there are lots of issues NATO and Russia need to cooperate on, like transit to Afghanistan, Iran, the Middle East, non-proliferation."

Russia set the tone for a new start by allowing a supply cargo for U.S. forces in Afghanistan to cross its territory this week, and NATO is keen to expand such cooperation.

Russia's Ria Novosti news agency quoted Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, as saying he believed the "period of estrangement" in Russia-NATO relations was "largely behind us".

He said a formal ambassadorial meeting of the NRC this month could lead to one of defence or foreign minsters in May or June.

Clinton, hoping to improve the sour tone of U.S.-Russia ties, has her first substantial meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Friday, with missile defence and strategic arms control expected to be key topics.

She said en route to Brussels that Washington and NATO wanted dialogue with Russia on a range of issues.

"I think in some areas we will find there is great potential for cooperation."

She said Washington wanted to put talks with Russia on a missile defence shield in Europe "on a serious track", and reiterated that the shield was aimed not at Russia but at deterring Iran.