11.   But Kim said an upcoming U.S. inspection of a possible North Korean nuclear weapons site and a visit to Pyongyang by U.S. envoy William Perry could help thaw relations.

12.   But with thawing inter-Korean relations in recent years, recent drills are increasingly focusing on fire, earthquake, and other hazards.

13.   However, some groups praised his trip as an effort to thaw relations with Jakarta and ease the way for a solution to East Timor.

14.   In a sign of thawing relations, China will send a top official to Taiwan Monday for a weeklong visit, a newspaper reported Saturday.

15.   Iranian newspapers hailed the agreement as testimony to thawing relations, which gained speed after President Mohammad Khatami came to power in August.

16.   Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi met with his Tunisian counterpart Wednesday on ways to thaw icy relations between two other neighbors, Algeria and Morocco.

17.   Military readiness is still important despite rapidly thawing relations with communist North Korea, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said Sunday.

18.   NATO officials complained Wednesday that Moscow still was keeping them in the dark about its plans to thaw relations with the Western alliance.

19.   NATO officials complained Wednesday that Moscow was still keeping them in the dark about its plans to thaw frozen relations with the Western alliance.

20.   Similar exercises earlier this year were scaled down amid thawing relations between two Koreas following a historic summit of their leaders in June.