Riga - Diplomats from NATO nations will visit Georgia next week despite Russian objections at the show of support for the country's pro-Western government, the alliance's top civilian said Friday.

The North Atlantic Council, which groups ambassadors from all 26 NATO members, plans a two-day trip starting Monday that includes a stop in Gori, a strategic town shelled by Russian forces during last month's fighting between the two countries.

Moscow  - The flight of two Russian nuclear-capable bombers to South America this week is proof that "any region in the world" is within reach of the country's long-range bomber fleet, Russia's air force commander said on Thursday.

"We have tested ourselves, and our bombers are capable of making flights to any region in the world," Colonel General Pavel Androsov told a briefing in Moscow on Thursday.

The TU-160 bombers, known as "Blackjack" by their NATO codename, were not equipped with nuclear weapons when they landed in Venezuela on Wednesday for a four day stay ahead of joint naval exercise in the Caribbean.

Androsov said in the televised briefing the planes carried only dummy missiles.

Helsinki  - A planned underwater Baltic Sea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany does not pose a security threat to the region, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Thursday.

Jung, who visited Finland for talks with his Finnish counterpart Jyri Hakamies and other officials, told reporters the 1,200-kilometre pipeline instead had to be studied from an environmental and economic perspective, Finnish news agency STT reported.

The pipeline envisaged by the Nord Stream AG consortium was planned to run from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald, Germany. The consortium has ruled out a land-based route.

Rome  - Syrian foreign minister Wallid Moallem on Thursday indicated Syria would not follow its Russian ally's decision to recognize South Ossetia's independence.

"We have not recognized Kosovo," Mo'allem said in Rome, replying to a question on whether Damascus would, given its close ties to Moscow, also recognize the breakaway Georgian region's independence.

Warsaw - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - visiting Warsaw Thursday - was quoted by a Polish newspaper as saying Russia is ready to improve relations and to discuss the US anti-missile shield to be placed in Poland.

The daily Wyborcza quoted him further as saying the European Union and Russia's security were interconnected, and Russia was ready to talk about the missile shield as long as the guarantees were not "empty political gestures."

"If the US and Poland are really interested in guaranteeing that the European anti-missile base won't be aimed against Russia then we, like up until now, are ready to consider their concrete proposals," he was quoted as saying.

Frankfurt - Deutsche Bank said Thursday it would expand its investment-banking operations in Russia, buying 40 per cent of UFG Invest, a Russian funds company.

In a joint statement in Frankfurt and Moscow, they said the existing Deutsche funds company in Russia, DWS Investment Russia, would be merged with UFG Invest, but the announcement did not say when this would happen.

Deutsche, Germany's biggest bank by business volume, is currently in talks on taking over Postbank, which has the largest number of retail customers in German.