Russia to back Nato in Afghanistan

Russia offered to support Nato's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan yesterday but ruled out sending troops to a country where Moscow pulled out of a disastrous occupation in the 1980s.

Alliance Secretary-General George Robertson said after a meeting of the Nato-Russia Council in Madrid that the offer, made by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, highlighted the dramatic improvement in relations between the Cold War foes.

"A few years ago... it would have been inconceivable that a Nato presence in Afghanistan would have been welcomed by the Russian authorities," he told a news conference.

Ivanov did not specify in what areas Russia could help Nato, which is due to take command of the 5,200-strong International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan on August 11, but he made clear it "has no plans to deploy military forces".

A Nato diplomat said the 19-nation alliance was looking with Russia at various areas of support such as intelligence-sharing, logistics and the provision of air bases in Tajikistan.

Russia is thought to have about 10,000 troops in Tajikistan, Moscow's key ally in the region.

Those forces have been guarding the border there for more than a decade since the break-up of the Soviet Union, playing a major role in stemming a flood of illegal drugs from Afghanistan to Russia and beyond to Europe.

The Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan in 1979 but its rule ended ignominiously 10 years later when Islamic guerrillas backed by the United States and neighbouring states forces Soviet troops out.

More than 11,000 U.S. and allied troops are in Afghanistan hunting for members of the deposed hardline Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.