Nato foreign ministers agreed today to resume high-level ties with Russia which were cut off last year after Moscow's incursion into Georgia.
"There is an agreed text. We are resuming the talks within the Nato-Russia Council as soon as possible after the Nato summit in April," said Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.
Russia welcomed the decision this afternoon saying it was a "step in the right direction."
"This decision is positive," its ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told a news conference, calling it "promising in terms of stability and security in Afghanistan".
But he regretted that ties would only be formally resumed after the summit.
"Russia is in no hurry on Afghanistan but NATO indeed should be hurrying and we are just surprised that this issue of the resuming of practical work is postponed for another month."
The decision comes as Nato and its allies seek Russian cooperation in the battle against Afghan militants and other threats.
Earlier US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed a high-level internationalconference to map out a new strategy for Afghanistan and said neighbour Pakistan would be invited.
"We hope that this meeting could provide an opportunity to reach a common set of principles, perhaps embodied in a chairman's statement on a common way forward," Ms Clinton told Nato foreign ministers, without saying where it would take place.
Aside from Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ms Clinton also proposed inviting Nato allies and other nations contributing forces to the operation in Afghanistan as well as major donors and international organizations.
Pakistani and Afghan foreign ministers met in Washington last week when the conference idea was discussed.
Ms Clinton repeated at the Nato meeting in Brussels a US appeal for Nato members to provide more troops to fight al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan, adding to the additional 17,000 US forces that Washington offered last month.
"We must add resources to address the serious situation on the ground right now," Ms Clinton said.
"We must recognize that one tiny, remote corner of the world, the borders of Pakistan, is the nerve center forextremists who planned 9/11; the bombings in Madrid and London, the assassination of (former Pakistani Prime Minister) Benazir Bhutto and the recent carnage in Mumbai," she said.
"They are planning similar attacks right now," she added.
Reuters