11.   Australia and Indonesia signed a security pact Monday, signaling a thaw in relations between the once-suspicious neighbors.

12.   CIA Director John Deutch, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Lt. Gen. Daniel Christman joined Clinton in Israel to work on the security pact.

13.   For one, the Asia-Pacific region could be moving, ever so slowly, toward some kind of a regional security pact.

14.   Further north, Russia too is growling, threatening to invoke its security pact with the Commonwealth of Independent States if the Afghan conflict spills across the borders.

15.   Kuchma stressed Thursday that Ukraine currently has no intention of joining the CIS collective security pact, known as the Tashkent Agreement, or of seeking NATO membership.

16.   Last month, Australia entered into a similar bilateral security cooperation pact with Indonesia, officially ending an era of mutual suspicion.

17.   Now they intend to end the suspicion through a new security pact.

18.   Other Southeast Asian nations, such as Malaysia and Singapore, should welcome rather than fear a new security pact between Australia and Indonesia, the government said Friday.

19.   Russia has signed a security pact with NATO but still opposes expansion into formerly communist Eastern Europe.

20.   Syria and Turkey signed a security pact Monday that aims to combat organized crime and terrorists operating between both countries, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported.