Kiev - Ukraine's top diplomat on Wednesday tried to put the best face possible on NATO's refusal to invite Kiev to join any time soon, instead saying his government "had achieved everything we wanted."

Volodymyr Ohryzko, Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, called a Tuesday decision by NATO headquarters not to offer Ukraine and Georgia fast-track membership "The result that we were working for: We have de facto received an action plan for the preparation of Ukraine to join NATO."

Brussels - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer condemned Thursday what he described as a "cowardly" terrorist attack targeting innocent victims in Mumbai.

"I condemn in the strongest possible terms the mindless and indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Attacking innocent people, tourists and patients in hospitals is despicable and cowardly," de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.

The head of the transatlantic alliance offered his solidarity and sympathy to the victims and said his organization would "spare no effort to fight the scourge of terrorism."

Kabul  - Seven years after the fall of the Taliban in the US- led invasion in Afghanistan, the NATO war on terrorism remains "unclear", President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday - and demanded a timeline for its success.

"This fight against terrorism and civilian casualties has been continuing for the past seven years. Our villages are bombarded, our people are getting killed," Karzai told a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer in his presidential palace.

Karzai said Afghanistan was burning because of "a war which is unclear what it is for, and what we are doing."

Washington  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Brussels next week for a NATO meeting and will make stops in Britain, Italy, Finland and Denmark during the six-day trip, the US State Department said Monday.

The NATO gathering of foreign ministers December 2-3 will likely focus on the war in Afghanistan and the expansion of the alliance to former Soviet states, including Ukraine and Georgia.

Plans to eventually allow those two countries into NATO has angered Moscow, which sees the expansion of NATO closer to Russian borders as a threat. Washington strongly backs membership for Georgia and Ukraine.

Kabul- A suicide bomber attacked a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan Thursday, wounding two NATO soldiers and four Afghan nationals, while nine insurgents were killed after they attacked a district governor, officials said.

The bomber attacked a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base in the Sabari district of the south-eastern province of Khost, an ISAF spokesman said.

Brussels - The seizure by pirates of a Saudi Arabian oil tanker shows that NATO must step up its efforts to make the world's seas safe, the alliance's top military commander said Wednesday.

Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, head of NATO's military committee, said there was a "growing awareness" among allies on the need to increase maritime security.