NATO Preparing for Azeri Membership»

According to diplomatic sources, an agreement on the deployment of mobile units of the US Army in Azerbaijan will be reached by the end of the week. Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Safar Abiyev is on a visit to Washington on Donald Rumsfeld's invitation.

It is to be announced in the course of the visit that the Pentagon will train Azerbaijani servicemen the way it has done in Georgia. The United States is also interested in modernization and reconstruction of Azerbaijani airfields to deploy American fast response mobile forces there in the near future. It may be added that these airfields are already capable of receiving heavy Ruslan-type transports.

Details of the individual cooperation treaty between Azerbaijan and NATO will be talked over in the course of the visit. The treaty is supposed to become another rung on the ladder leading Azerbaijan to the status of candidate for NATO.