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

Russian president-elect Dmitry Medvedev maintained pressure on NATO on Tuesday not to grant membership to Ukraine and Georgia, saying a week before an alliance summit that it would undermine European security.

NATO leaders meeting in Bucharest from April 2-4 are expected to consider requests by the two former Soviet republics' pro-Western leaders to put their countries on the path to membership.

The Macedonian foreign minister threatened to end negotiations with Greece over the former Yugoslav republic's name if Macedonia's southern neighbor vetoes its bid to join NATO.

Antonio Milososki also said Monday that chances are small that a deal on the name can be reached before next week's NATO summit.

Romania's Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) raised the national terrorist alert level on Tuesday, a week before the NATO Summit in its capital Bucharest.

The CSAT decided to raise the alert level from blue (cautious) to yellow (moderate), at the proposal of the Romanian Intelligence Service.

Tensions continue on the streets of Mitrovica a week after rioting Serbs clashed with police and NATO troops in the town on Kosovo's northern border.

The violence in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica last week was the worst since Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence on Feb. 17. Hundreds of United Nations peacekeepers and NATO soldiers pulled out of the frontier region that abuts Serbia after coming under fire from automatic weapons and hand grenades. A Ukrainian police officer was killed during the unrest.

Nicolas Sarkozy is pressing for Nato agreement for a broader political strategy in Afghanistan before finalising a decision to send extra troops to join the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, French officials say.

The French president is expected to announce the deployment of French reinforcements to either the east or south of Afghanistan at Nato's summit in Bucharest next week.

NATO forces sent jets to escort two Russian long-range air force bombers patrolling neutral skies near Alaska on Wednesday, Russian news agencies quoted the defense ministry as saying.

Russia's military has resumed its Cold War practice of flying regular patrols far beyond its borders, and in the last year has also sent turbo-prop Tu-95s over U.S. naval aircraft carriers and the Pacific island of Guam.

NATO plans to start an online TV channel to improve the image of the Western military alliance.

NATO TV will be launched at a summit next week in Bucharest, Romania, alliance spokesman James Appathurai said Wednesday.

New trans-Atlantic divisions have emerged over whether to confront Russia's next president, Dmitri Medvedev, by offering Ukraine and Georgia a clear path to NATO membership at a meeting next week, alliance diplomats said Thursday.

Before a meeting of alliance leaders in Bucharest, strong American support for the Ukrainian and Georgian bids is being resisted by Germany as well as France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Officials are seeking to satisfy Washington by drafting a statement that would reassure Ukraine and Georgia that NATO's door remains open to them but without giving a firmer signal on future membership.

NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview published Friday against the use of "unhelpful rhetoric" at next week's NATO summit in Romania.

Speaking to the Financial Times from Brussels, Scheffer said the success of the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) at the April 2-4 summit would depend largely on the tone that Putin, who will make way in May for his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev, takes at the summit.

In Afghanistan, it is battling al-Qaida and Taliban. In newly independent Kosovo, it's up against Serbian protesters armed with firebombs and grenades. And behind the scenes, it is helping to quell the violence in Iraq and to track down suspected war criminals in Bosnia.

NATO, its chief insists, has no ambitions to become a "global policeman." But the military alliance born of the Cold War continues to grow and face new challenges.

Canada said Thursday it is confident NATO would send more troops to southern Afghanistan to satisfy its conditions to keep Canadian troops there until 2011.

"Regarding our discussions with our allies, they are proceeding well and we expect to meet our goals," said Sandra Buckler, spokeswoman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, at a news briefing in Ottawa.

President Bush says he "strongly supports" Croatian membership in NATO, but has declined to say if the former Yugoslav country will be invited to join the alliance at a summit next week.

In an interview with the state-run Croatian television broadcast Thursday, Bush said the decision will be made by all NATO members.