Strasbourg, France  - US President Barack Obama travelled to Europe for a NATO summit with a rather long wish list of contributions he would like to see Washington's allies make in their faltering war against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

He left the two-day meeting celebrating the alliance's 60th birthday trying to convince others - and perhaps himself - that he got what he wished for.

"This was not a pledging conference," he told journalists in Strasbourg on Saturday after the summit ended, "and yet we received the kind of commitments that you usually don't get at meetings like this."

Strasbourg, France  - United States President Barack Obama on Saturday brokered a deal with Turkey, which assured the appointment of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO's next secretary general.

"Rasmussen is an outstanding public servant, somebody with an extraordinary reputation," Obama said at the end of a two-day summit of alliance leaders in France and Germany.

Wellington  - The United Chinese Association of New Zealand, an umbrella group representing 28 organizations, wants the government to refuse the Dalai Lama a visa for a proposed visit in December, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Prime Minister John Key has already said he would meet the 73- year-old Tibetan spiritual leader when he visits Auckland, calling him a "significant visitor," the New Zealand Herald reported.

London  - US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev moved to open a new chapter in relations between their two nations Wednesday by agreeing to draw up a new deal on nuclear disarmament.

At a meeting in London ahead of Thursday's summit of Group of 20 (G20) leading world economies, both presidents pledged to "move further along the path of reducing and limiting strategic offensive arms," in a joint statement issued after their first meeting since Obama's inauguration.

Washington - The United States on Wednesday said it would continue to work towards a two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, but stopped short of criticizing incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Barack Obama called Netanyahu to congratulate him on being sworn in as prime minister Wednesday and "reaffirmed the United States' steadfast commitment to Israel and its security," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.