Strasbourg, France - Success in Afghanistan and improved relations with Russia are vital to the future of NATO, the alliance's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said Thursday in the French city of Strasbourg.

"We need to succeed in Afghanistan," since "success in Afghanistan will have an impact on how NATO is perceived in the rest of the world," de Hoop Scheffer told a group of students from around the world on the eve of a two-day NATO summit in France and Germany.

Strasbourg, France  - Several hundred anti-NATO protesters clashed with police in the French city of Strasbourg on Thursday, one day before leaders from the 28-member alliance were due to meet in France and Germany, France Info radio reported.

The demonstrators broke windows and set trash bins on fire before police were able to restore order.

Both Germany and France have deployed security forces to keep the order for the two-day summit marking the 60th anniversary of NATO's founding.

London  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy threw down the gauntlet Wednesday and challenged the Group of 20 (G20) big economic powers to agree to tough new reforms for global financial markets.

"We don't want results that won't have a practical effect," said an unusually combative Merkel at a joint press conference with Sarkozy ahead of Thursday's summit in London of the leading industrialized nations and emerging economies.

London - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy threw down the gauntlet Wednesday and challenged the Group of 20 (G20) big economic powers to agree to tough new reforms for global financial markets.

"The foundations for the new financial architecture is now," said an unusually combative Merkel at a joint press conference with Sarkozy ahead of Thursday's summit in London of the leading industrialized nations and emerging economies.

Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said on Wednesday that their two countries were preparing a proposal for a new world governance to prevent future economic crises caused by a lack of regulation.

"We want (at least) a minimum of regulation in the face of the disaster that has been caused by total deregulation," Sarkozy told journalists in Paris after a meeting with Lula just hours before the two were to travel on to London for the G20 summit.

Paris - One day before the opening of the G20 summit in London, France and China have put an end to their bilateral tension over Tibet, the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

"France and China reiterate their attachment to the principle of non-interference as laid down by the United Nations Charter, and agree to reinforce their collaboration on issues of fundamental interest to the two countries," the ministry said in a press statement.