BRUSSELS - NATO foreign ministers will broach the potentially sensitive issue of how the alliance could be involved in a revived Middle East peace process, at a meeting in Vilnius starting Wednesday.
Relations with Russia and Ukraine will also be on the menu at the two-day NATO informal talks in Lithuania, the first such gathering on the soil of an ex-Soviet republic.
More broadly they will also debate a US-backed plan to give NATO -- which was nearly torn apart by the 2003 Iraq war -- a bigger role as a forum for political dialogue, while streamlining its cumbersome decision-making process.
The dialogue will start over dinner Wednesday evening with discussion of what NATO might do to help in the Middle East -- a notion which has already triggered expressions of doubt in Paris.
France, which spearheaded opposition to the US-led Iraq war, has made it clear that while willing to discuss the issue in general terms, it is opposed to any wide NATO role in the region.
"NATO has no role in replacing international efforts in the region," said French foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei.
Specifically presentations on the issue will be made by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Spain's Miguel Angel Moratinos, who said they would broach "a possible role for NATO and how it could help the peace process."
"We must find a common US and European position," added Moratinos, the European Union (EU)'s former envoy to the Middle East, at the weekend, adding that there is "more and more will to use" NATO forces in the region.
But US officials have stressed that Washington is far from talking, for example, about sending NATO peacekeeping troops into the region.
"We are very very early on this. We could only even consider a NATO role if it were sought by the parties (in the region) themselves," said one senior NATO diplomat.
On other issues, the Vilnius talks will likely include discussion of NATO's commitment to training forces in Iraq, where several states are gearing to withdraw their troops, as well as NATO operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
NATO's supreme commander, US General James Jones, called last week for a review of the alliance's forces in Kosovo which could lead to a sizeable cut in troop strength.
Russia will also be high on the agenda, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov due in Lithuania, one of seven ex-communist countries which joined NATO last year despite Moscow's reservations.
The US secretary of state will arrive in Vilnius direct from the Russian capital, where she was expected to keep up pressure on President Vladimir Putin over democratic reforms.
In addition to attending a session of the NATO-Russia Council on Thursday, Rice will sit in on a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission.
The former Soviet republic has sent feelers out about eventual membership in NATO after last year's "Orange Revolution" that put the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko in the presidency.
NATO transformation from the West's Cold War military bloc was accelerated by the September 11 attacks towards a more global peacekeeping and security role.
Washington says it wants to continue discussing NATO's future role, and in particular how to ease problems due to the alliance's requirement of consensus for all decisions -- as dramatically illustrated by the Iraq war deadlock.
"Our chief aim is ensuring that NATO is structured in a way that facilitates quick decision making when it is needed," said one diplomat.
04/19/2005 11:34 GMT