The spokesman's perspective:

Continuing our new series of video commentary, NATO Spokesman James Appathurai gives his personal perspective on recent articles discussing NATO. He invites you to write in with your own comments and opinions, which could be featured in the next installment.

E-mail comments to: press@hq.nato.int

Vladimir Putin caught the only fish and graciously told U.S. President George W. Bush it was "a team effort."

But whether the two world leaders were any closer to the ultimate team effort on the crucial question of European missile defence was unclear after the Russian president yesterday proposed bringing NATO into the decision-making process on the structure of the shield.

The chief of NATO said Tuesday that the alliance must do everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties in Afghanistan, amid growing concerns over the killing of innocent people by NATO forces. "For NATO, every single civilian life lost in Afghanistan is one too many," Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on the sidelines of a conference on Afghanistan. "NATO will do and has to do everything in its ability to prevent civilian casualties."

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer vowed on Tuesday to investigate recent civilian deaths in Afghanistan, but contrasted NATO's record with a Taliban who "behead people, burn schools, kill women and children".

NATO should put on trial a soldier who fired at civilians, resulting in the deaths of two and wounding of four in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar city, a senior provincial official said on Tuesday.

(AFP) Germany’s highest court has rejected a legal complaint against the deployment of Tornado jets in Afghanistan in support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato)’s offensive against Taliban extremists.

NATO regrets the deaths and injuries it has accidentally caused among Afghan civilians and will continue to review its military procedures, Canada’s junior foreign affairs minister said Tuesday.