December 16, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 30, 1422

YEREVAN, Dec 15: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a lightning tour of the Caucasus on Saturday with the offer of military assistance to states close to Afghanistan in return for their help in the US war on terrorism.

Rumsfeld landed in the Armenian capital Yerevan on the second leg of a one-day tour of the south Caucasus states of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia — across the Caspian Sea from the Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan.

The three former Soviet republics have offered Washington use of their airspace for the Afghan campaign.

REWARDS FOR SUPPORT: Rumsfeld and senior US officials said Washington was anxious to reward the impoverished states for their support.

“I think we are able — or at least we will be able — to have military-to-military relations on a sort of fresh basis as we go forward,” Rumsfeld told reporters on his aircraft.

He said the US Congress was about to approve legislation to lift 1992 sanctions prohibiting military relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan despite their continuing dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Officials said closer contact with the United States would allow the countries to modernise their armies and press ahead with post-communist economic reforms.

In Azerbaijan, Rumsfeld held talks with President Haydar Aliyev and thanked him for his support for US military action.

“The Congress is currently considering a waiver for Section 907, which would allow the United States and your country to engage in greater military-to-military cooperation,” he told Aliyev across a long table.

“We are hopeful that the change in law will take place this week and this will be the beginning of improved cooperation between our two countries.”

Aliyev, leader of a mainly Muslim state of eight million, said the waiver would be a “very good Christmas present”.

Azerbaijan suffered a humiliating defeat in a 1988-94 war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, after the enclave’s mainly ethnic Armenian population tried to break from Azeri rule. A ceasefire ended the conflict but the dispute is unresolved.

Other reports said Rumsfeld said after talks with President Aliyev that he hoped closer military ties would free up Azerbaijan to offer more help in the international campaign against terrorism.

“Our world is at a crossroads. The problem of international terrorism and terrorist networks threatens all corners of the world and every nation has to decide how they will respond to this threat,” Rumsfeld told a press conference.

He added: “In the days ahead our Congress is going to be lifting restrictions on military relations between our countries so this morning we ... discussed we might work together to build and strengthen the cooperation between our armed forces.”

A measure expected to clear the US Congress soon will give US President George W. Bush the power to waive sanctions against Azerbaijan and neighbouring Armenia which until now have barred bilateral military cooperation.

The US defense secretary then left for the Armenian capital Yerevan from where he will fly to the neighbouring republic of Georgia on Saturday evening.

Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abbiyev told the press conference US and Azeri defense officials would be meeting in the coming weeks to thrash out what forms the new military cooperation would take.

Azerbaijan has given US military aircraft permission to overfly the country en route to Afghanistan but Abbiyev said Baku had not yet decided whether to offer US forces use of a base on its soil.

Speaking earlier to reporters at the start of his meeting with Rumsfeld, President Aliyev said Azerbaijan was an ally of the US against terrorism and was prepared to cooperate in other fields too.

But he voiced disappointment that the sanctions against his country were still in force. “I was hoping that when you arrived you would say it had already been waived,” he told Rumsfeld.

The so-called 907th amendment limiting US cooperation with Azerbaijan and Armenia was adopted in response to the war in the early 1990s between the two Caucasus countries over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The waiver to be voted through by Congress gives Bush the right to overrule amendment 907 if he deems it would help the fight against terrorism, US military operations in Afghanistan and Azerbaijan’s border security.

During his talks in Yerevan with Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Rumsfeld was expected to discuss widening military cooperation with Armenia once Congress approves the waiver.

Speaking to reporters on the flight to Baku, Rumsfeld said new opportunities had arisen for forging fresh ties in the wake of the September 11 suicide plane attacks on the United States.

“I have said the events since September 11 have shifted the priorities of an awful lot of countries of the world and their perspective about the United States and the problems of the world,” he said.

“And it does offer an opportunity, it seems to me, to reconnect with these countries in this new circumstance... We believe we will be able to have military-to-military relations on a fresh basis soon,” he said.—Reuter/AFP