Russia to attend 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon

NATO members are preparing to meet in Portugal for what is being billed as one of the most crucial summits in the alliance's 61-year history, BBC News reports.

The 28 member states are hoping to reach a "New Strategic Concept" to shape the way NATO defends itself against threats over the next decade.

Afghanistan will be top of the agenda, with plans to bring Nato's combat operations to an end by 2014.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will also attend, in a sign of warming ties.

Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev will become the first Russian president to attend a NATO summit since his country's conflict with Georgia in 2008, when he meets leaders on Saturday.

The alliance is keen to build bridges with Moscow, and a key issue at the summit will be agreeing plans for a joint study of missile defence, says the BBC correspondent in a recent article.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the BBC on Friday that a security handover to Afghan forces was realistic by the end of 2014.

"We will make a very important announcement at the summit in Lisbon that a gradual transition to leave Afghan responsibility is about to start at the beginning of 2011 and we hope to see this gradual process completed by the end of 2014, and I find that roadmap realistic," he told Radio 4's Today programme.

The summit will also debate proposals on changing NATO's command structure, in an attempt to reduce bureaucracy and expenditure.

The changes could see the number of NATO agencies which look after areas such as logistics, communications, research and training cut from 14 to three.