The newly-created NATO-Russia Council will take centre stage at a meeting of alliance defence ministers today and tomorrow, throwing the spotlight on Moscow's efforts to cool sabre-rattling between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan over disputed Kashmir.

The joint body, which groups the former Cold War rivals NATO and Russia, was formed at a summit between the two in Rome last week and has taken on growing importance as Moscow assumes the role of mediator between the belligerent south Asian countries.

At their regular meeting, the 19 NATO defence ministers will be

eager for a debriefing from Russian counterpart Sergel Ivanov on his boss Vladimir Putin's talks in Almaty with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the stand of in Kashmir which has unleashed fears of a nuclear war.

At a regional summit which brought the leaders of India and

Pakistan into the same room on Tuesday, Putin led diplomatic efforts to avert war on the subcontinent, but failed to get the two to talk together.

Growing concerns over global terrorism drove Russia and NATO to crank up their level of cooperation, but their attention quickly turned to the specter of war in South Asia.

"The presidents and prime ministers strongly urge both sides to de-escalate and to resume talking together so that their problems can be resolved peacefully," NATO Secretary General George Robertson said in Italy last week as the ink dried on the NATO-Russia accord.

That was expected to be his theme at the council meeting here.

An alliance diplomat said the two partners envisioned creating a NATO-Russia training facility and shaping up plans for joint operations.

The 19 NATO defence ministers will be holding their own meeting -minus Russia -- before the new

council convenes.

Talk there is expected to focus on modernising and streamlining the half-century-old transatlantic alliance to avoid being again sidelined as it largely was in the US antiTaliban campaign in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks on the US.

For Robertson, the choice is simple: "Modernise or be marginalised."

The allies will be shaping up decisions for their summit in Prague next November at which they are expected to invite new members from eastern Europe, particularly honing a programme of armed forces modernisation begun at the 1999 NATO summit in Washington, but thus far without laudable results.

To reach that new level of efficiency, the 19 feel, as does Robertson, that they should be getting leaner and meaner, concentrating on a handful of top, do-able priori-

ties, including strategic transport, precision guided weapons, special forces, and secure communications.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to hammer home the oft-stated American dictum that the allies need to specialise more in the things they do best, and more efficiently pool their military hardware.