Russian Military May Return To Afghanistan

Russia and NATO are planning a joint initiative in Afghanistan that may see Russian forces in Afghanistan for the first time since 1989.

A Nato summit next month will be attended by Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, to discuss the plans. Nato officials said Russia had agreed to sell helicopters to Afghanistan and provide training.

Moscow will allow Nato forces to withdraw equipment from Afghanistan overland for the first time, in proposals expected to be agreed in Lisbon.

"The summit can mark a new start in the relationship between Nato and Russia," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato secretary-general.

"We will hopefully agree on a broad range of areas in which we can develop practical co-operation on Afghanistan, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics."

He also said that British and US troops would remain on Afghanistan's front lines for years under an open-ended agreement to be signed at the summit. Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has demanded that his forces take over the fight against the Taliban by 2014.

By: Shelldrake