The "confidential" talks would involve NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Russia's ambassador to the military alliance, Dmitry Rogozin, a NATO official said Thursday.

"They are going to have an informal lunch tomorrow," she said, but declined to go into details.

NATO foreign ministers agreed on December 3 "on a measured and phased approach" for resuming talks in the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), which meets at ambassadorial, ministerial and head of government levels.

Meetings of the council were put on ice in August due to Russia's war in Georgia, but technical and working-level talks have continued.

"Since the beginning of crisis there have been contacts at working level," the official underscored. "The relations have not been frozen."

Some European allies, led by France and Germany, are keen to resume contact with Russia, which is a major supplier of European natural gas and oil, but the United States does not want to reward Moscow for its actions in Georgia.

Under European pressure, the ministers gave Scheffer a mandate "to re-engage with Russia at the political level; agreed to informal discussions in the NRC," with a full return to formal talks possible once he reports back.

Rogozin said Russia wanted all problematic issues to be put on the table, and that Moscow would decide later whether it wanted the NRC meetings to resume.

"I hope the secretary general will propose dates and themes for discussion and I will see with Moscow if this is convenient, and then we will take a decision," he told AFP.

"Everything has to be put on the table," he said. "It's up to NATO to correct its errors."

The war in Georgia brought tense NATO-Russia ties to a head.

Russia has been angered by NATO's open door policy in regard to former Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine.

Alliance leaders decided in April that although they would join one day, a fast-track approach had been ruled out for the time being.

Moscow is also vehemently opposed to independence for Kosovo, where NATO leads a peacekeeping force, and has threatened to counter the extension into Europe of a US missile shield.

NATO allies, for their part, have rejected Russia's recognition of breakaway Georgian regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and have expressed concern about Moscow's decision to freeze a major Cold War arms treaty.

They also suspect that proposals by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for a new security pact in Europe are aimed at doing away with NATO, which Moscow fears is closing in on its borders.

Russia has called for a new, legally binding security pact to replace what it says are outdated arms control treaties from the Cold War and to help avoid crises such as the brief war in Georgia.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com