71.   Western political and defence leaders called Saturday for a broader new Atlantic alliance going beyond the NATO military pact to embrace economic and strategic issues.

72.   It appears unlikely that the actions of the Atlantic alliance and the Bosnian army were coordinated.

73.   Meanwhile Joulwan held talks with Russian defense officials and said both Moscow and the Atlantic alliance would benefit from closer ties, ITAR-TASS news agency said.

74.   Moscow has refused repeatedly to countenance an expansion eastward of the Atlantic alliance to include former Warsaw Pact countries and Yeltsin would not budge from this position Wednesday.

75.   NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said Wednesday he would almost certainly travel to Moscow in March to discuss the sensitive issue of enlargement of the Atlantic alliance east.

76.   Moscow is keen on a legally binding treaty with the Atlantic alliance, while NATO has proposed only a charter or political statement.

77.   NATO is expected to induct new members at the summit, and Solana made it clear that Moscow could do nothing to prevent the expansion of the Atlantic alliance.

78.   NATO Secretary General Willy Claes said Monday that any military operation tasked with enforcing a Bosnian peace accord must be under the sole command of the Atlantic alliance.

79.   NATO secretary-general Javier Solana on Wednesday backed French proposals for a European defence component within the Atlantic alliance.

80.   NATO Secretary-general Willy Claes and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said Thursday that the Atlantic military alliance must develop an intensive cooperative partnership with Russia and Ukraine.