Representatives from NATO and Russia were discussing ways to combat international terrorism Tuesday at a conference in the Slovene capital Ljubljana. Military and civil crisis experts from 27 countries in the NATO-Russia Council are expected to talk about anti-terror measures and the capabilities of individual states, in the light of terror attacks in the U.S., Turkey, Spain and Russia. It's hoped the four-day discussions will find ways to strengthen cooperation in preventing, countering and managing the consequences of terrorist acts. "In the past years, we have seen cowardly attacks on civilians in Beslan, Madrid, Istanbul and many other places," Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel told the conference. "The new, highly destructive dimension of terrorism concerns us all." The NATO-Russia Council was set up in May 2002 to encourage NATO's cooperation with Russia in a number of fields where the two sides have similar interests, according to a report of The Associated Press.
