NATO says near deal on Russian Afghan help

By Mark John and Paul Taylor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO said on Saturday it was nearing a deal to use Russian land and airspace to supply its security forces in Afghanistan, but Western diplomats denied any trade-off with Moscow to keep Ukraine and Georgia out of NATO.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he was hopeful of increased cooperation with Russia. An alliance spokesman said NATO was negotiating accords on land and air corridors for its troops and equipment, which could be announced when President Vladimir Putin attends a NATO summit next month.

"I hope that Afghanistan might be an area where NATO and Russia can make strides to cooperate more closely together," de Hoop Scheffer told a security conference in Brussels.

Diplomats said a NATO-Russia council meeting on Monday would discuss a "package of deliverables" also including the possible leasing of Russian planes and trains, Russian training for Afghan helicopter pilots and counter-narcotics assistance.

"Discussions are under way. There is no deal done. We are working towards an agreement at the Bucharest summit," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said of an upcoming April 2-4 meeting in the Romanian capital.

"We are negotiating land and air transit agreements plus the possibility of making more permanent our cooperation on counter-narcotics training," he added.

The U.S. secretaries of state and defense, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, will visit Moscow on Tuesday to discuss with their Russian counterparts a wider package of issues including missile defense, conventional and nuclear arms control as well as cooperation on Afghanistan and Iran, the diplomats said.

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