A senior Western diplomat says talks with Russia have collapsed on the sensitive issue of sending additional international monitors to keep tabs on South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

NATO decided yesterday not to put Georgia and Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement Russian opposition, but the alliance pledged that the strategically important Black Sea nations will become members one day.

Nato bowed to Russian pressure today by delaying plans to expand eastwards to include two former Soviet republics.

US defence secretary Robert Gates is expected to crank up pressure on European allies who refuse to send troops to the front line against the resurgent Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Britain’s Nato partners were urged to send more troops to Afghanistan today by the organisation’s secretary-general.

The European Union and the Nato alliance hailed Boris Yeltsin today as a healer of the Cold War divide who opened up Russia to the rest of Europe.

Nato’s secretary-general today warned the alliance will not tolerate violence in Kosovo just days after clashes between police and ethnic Albanians left two dead.

Nato’s military operation in Afghanistan can be successful, the alliance’s chief said today, urging member countries not to lose heart despite a strengthening Taliban insurgency and unexpectedly high casualties.

Nato’s secretary general today said all 26 member nations will allow their troops in Afghanistan to provide emergency support to allied units anywhere in the country, despite criticism that some are refusing to authorise commanders to send their soldiers into more dangerous regions.

Nato's Secretary-General today said he is saddened by recent deaths of Afghan civilians, and that the alliance is committed to defending democracy in a nation once ruled by the repressive Taliban regime.

The European Union and Nato today condemned North Korea’s nuclear test, saying it endangered peace around the world.

Nato defence ministers face a tense meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia, today with their Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov, after the Western alliance angered Moscow last week by agreeing to deepen co-operation with Georgia.

Nato defence ministers yesterday approved an extension of the alliance’s Afghan security mission across the entire country, taking in the volatile eastern region and bringing up to 12,000 more US troops under allied command.

As Nato troops exert pressure on Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, militants have regrouped in western provinces and ignited violence that has killed a dozen people in two days, officials said today.

Nato defence ministers expressed confidence today that their beefed-up peacekeeping force in Afghanistan will stem the recent surge in violence as Nato troops move into the southern heartland of the deposed Taliban regime.

Nato defence ministers will today seek to calm Islamic anger over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons at their first meeting with counterparts from Israel and six Arab nations.

Nato will have AWACS surveillance planes patrolling the skies over Germany during the World Cup, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said today.

Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer opened meetings with top Ukrainian officials today, aimed at reviewing the ex-Soviet republic’s bid to join the Western alliance.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the chief of Nato today expressed optimism the alliance could iron out problems over its planned expansion next year into the volatile south of the country.

Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Baghdad today to review the alliance’s training mission for the Iraqi military.

US defence officials in Washington today confirmed that Abu Azzam, a leading deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq, has been killed.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that the US would maintain a forceful military presence in Afghanistan despite pressure to free forces stretched by the insurgency in Iraq.

Nato defence ministers will this week consider the future of an alliance which has evolved into a global trouble-shooter whose missions include patrolling Afghanistan, backing African peacekeepers in Sudan and shipping humanitarian relief to the United States.

International donors pledged an additional €160m to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur today during a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to raise money to stop the ongoing violence in western Sudan.

The US has today pledged an additional €39m to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur during a conference of international donors.

Australia agreed with Nato’s secretary-general that Afghanistan’s burgeoning opium crop was a growing international problem, but refused a request to increase Australia’s military presence there to help deal with it, officials said today.

Nato wants to increase its military co-operation with Israel, especially in the areas of sharing intelligence and fighting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the alliance’s secretary general said in an interview published today.

Eager to capitalise on Iraq’s elections, President George Bush continued to press fellow world leaders today to support the new Baghdad government being formed after Sunday’s voting.

An ally of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko said today that the opposition is ready to hold talks with President Leonid Kuchma only about the peaceful transfer of power to Yushchenko.

Nato nations agreed today to begin training Iraqi forces, an alliance official said.

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said today that the Nato mission to train Iraqi forces would involve alliance instructors working both inside and outside of the country.

NATO chose Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as its new secretary general yesterday.

The Nato allies today picked Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as the defence alliance’s next secretary general.

The Dutch Foreign Minister has emerged as the front-runner to become the next NATO secretary general after an eight month search for a successor to Britain’s George Robertson.