LITHUANIA: US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice arrived in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, last night, to join 25 other Nato foreign ministers for talks. These will concentrate on everything from boosting the alliance's political clout to a potential role in bringing peace to the Middle East.
The first such meeting on former Soviet soil will also add a frisson to US relations with Russia, as Ms Rice plans to meet opposition activists from Belarus. Its Moscow-friendly leader accuses Washington of planning to topple him with the kind of revolution that ousted the autocratic leaders of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
Before leaving Russia, Dr Rice set the seal on a tough new era of US-Russian relations by renewing her criticism of President Vladimir Putin for impeding democracy. "There should not be so much concentration of power just in the presidency, there needs to be an independent media," she told Echo Moscow, the country's most prestigious independent broadcasting station.
Dr Rice said Washington would be monitoring next week's verdict in the fraud trial of Russia's top tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of Yukos oil company, after criticism that the prosecution was politically motivated.
"Everyone will be watching to see what the Yukos case says about the rule of law in Russia," she said. "I know that there will soon be a verdict, and we and investors and the rest of the international community will hope that it is a process that inspires confidence." Mr Khodorkovsky claims his fraud trial is a politically motivated attack by the Kremlin. A verdict is due on Wednesday next.
The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine will attend the talks today, with Kiev hoping for enhanced political and military co-operation, and Moscow eyeing a deal on joint military manoeuvres and easier transport of troops through each other's territories.
Talk ahead of the meeting was dominated by US-backed proposals to give Nato - which was deeply divided over the US-led war in Iraq - a greater role as a forum for political discussion, while streamlining its cumbersome decision-making process.
"The more allies are aware of each others' concerns and approaches . . . the less there will be disagreements," said Nato spokesman James Appathurai.
"Nato has been underused as a forum for this kind of dialogue."
In a German newspaper yesterday, Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urged the alliance to increase co-operation with the United Nations and the European Union, saying that regular meetings between Nato and EU foreign ministers could prevent the organisations from duplicating efforts.
But he played down a German proposal for the creation of a panel of experts to help reform the coalition and devise a new framework for transatlantic relations.