NATO urges Russia to pull out of breakaway regions

Strasbourg (AP): NATO reached out to Russia at its summit today, saying it wanted to work together against threats such as piracy and terrorism. But the alliance's insistence that Russia pull its troops from the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia risks meeting Kremlin resistance.
NATO leaders meeting on the French-German border sent the two-pronged message to Moscow, which sees the alliance as a throwback to a Cold War that ended nearly two decades ago.
Their choice of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO's new chief threw another potential wrench into the complicated relationship, as he is little loved in Russia.
"There is a shared view in NATO that we must cooperate with Russia," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said at the close of the summit. "We think this relationship can deliver more than it has up to now."
NATO leaders said they were ready to resume ministerial level meetings with Russia in the coming months, and hoped to work with Russia on fighting new threats including piracy and terrorism.
"Despite the disagreements we have now with it, Russia has a particular importance for us as a partner and neighbor," the NATO leaders said in a statement.