Mons, Belgium - NATO is to divert seven warships, bound on the alliance's first-ever visit to Asia, to the coast of Somalia to fight piracy later this month, alliance ambassadors decided Friday.

The fleet of six frigates and a tanker, which had long been scheduled to visit Pakistan, Singapore and Australia, will first spend a month fighting piracy off the Horn of Africa, NATO said in a press release issued at the alliance's military headquarters.

Mons, Belgium - NATO should boost the number of its troops in Afghanistan by up to 20,000 men, a 40-per-cent increase from current numbers, if it wants to stabilize the country, NATO's top military commander said Monday.

The United States is set to deploy an extra brigade (up to 5,000 men) to Afghanistan in 2009, and "we are looking at how to resource a request from (NATO command in Afghanistan) for three more brigades," NATO military commander General Bantz J Craddock told journalists at the alliance's headquarters in Belgium.

Mons, Belgium - Three NATO warships have reached the coast of Somalia and are ready to defend United Nations vessels from possible attacks by pirates, the alliance confirmed Friday.

Italy's ITS Durand de la Penne, Greece's HS Themistokles and Britain's HMS Cumberland were to begin escorting World Food Programme (WFP) vessels carrying food aid to Africa.

Mons, Belgium - For a room capable of jumping to a

Mons, Belgium - Georgia has not called for NATO military help in its ongoing dispute with Russia, and th