On the Greek island of Corfu, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterparts convened a NATO-Russia Council, the forum where they cooperate and air their many concerns, for the first time in almost a year.

"I am confident that this will be the restart of our relationship," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters before chairing the talks.

"There is an express wish by the Russian Federation to restart the cooperation completely," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said. "We want to leave the Cold War behind and move forward together."

The meeting marks a formal resumption of political ties and officials expressed hope that Russia would also agree to resume military cooperation.

But they also want to rubber stamp a work programme to improve the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) after its shortcomings were exposed when Russia sent troops into Georgia last August.

"There will be a lot of talk about how to take forward the NRC to make it work better," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said, on the sidelines of the talks.

"I assume they will task the 29 ambassadors back in Brussels to deliver on some concrete proposals on how to make the NATO-Russia Council work better."

A senior US official said "the goal is to reach the full potential of the NRC as soon as possible", and he described the forum as an underperforming sports car.

"It's a Ferrari, when you think about it, it can do anything. In practice it has not always moved as quickly as it could," he said, adding that while reforms are considered "it's more going to be like a Fiat 500."

NATO and Russia have worked together in the military alliance's battle to defeat the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, the fight against terrorism and against piracy off Somalia.

But they disagree on issues ranging from missile defence to the recognition of the independence of Kosovo -- where NATO has a peacekeeping force -- as well as a number of arms treaties.

However Russia's five day war with NATO-hopeful Georgia last August and its subsequent recognition of the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia raised tensions to boiling point.

Efforts to formally resume top level talks have previously foundered, with Moscow pulling out of the last meeting of this kind in May after NATO vowed to go ahead with war games in Georgia.

The senior US official said the talks would focus on military cooperation -- softer terrain than their thorny political ties.

Despite the optimism, Russia's call for a sweeping new European security pact -- floated by President Dmitry Medvedev a year ago -- will weigh on the talks.

Appathurai said the best place to discuss the idea would be the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) -- which meets here late Saturday and Sunday -- but that NATO would not oppose Lavrov outright if he raised it.

"I don't think that he would meet opposition to having this at a certain stage raised in the NRC context, but we believe that the first format for that is the OSCE."

The pact would replace what Russia insists are outdated arms control treaties from the Cold War and help avoid crises like Georgia, but NATO and the European Union are uneasy with the plan.

The talks come as the OSCE marks the end of its monitoring mission in Georgia, and with Russia blocking any new effort, only EU observers will remain on the ground.

The ministers were due to raise concerns about Russia's opposition with Lavrov.

earlier related report
Russia ready for 'complete cooperation' with NATO: Berlusconi
Russia is ready for "complete cooperation" with NATO nearly a year after the war in Georgia soured their relations, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday.

"There is an express wish by the Russian Federation to restart the cooperation completely," Berlusconi told reporters on the Greek island of Corfu, where NATO and Russian foreign ministers convened the NATO-Russia Council.

"I had a 30-minute telephone conversation with President (Dmitry) Medvedev who mandated me to represent also in the name of the Russian Federation the absolute desire to restart complete cooperation with NATO countries," he said.

Berlusconi, who was not initially expected at the Corfu talks, noted he was personally involved in the accord that set up the NATO-Russia Council at the Italian airbase of Pratica di Mare in May 2002.

"I personally signed the accord between all the countries of the alliance and the Russian Federation," he said.

Efforts to formally resume the NATO-Russia Council have previously foundered, with Moscow pulling out of the last planned meeting of this kind in May after NATO vowed to go ahead with war games in Georgia.

But a number of ministers stressed ahead of the meeting that NATO and Russia have a common interest in collaborating on security issues ranging from terrorism and piracy to climate change.

"I think there are terror threats that we can better tackle with Russia rather than without Russia," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

The talks are on the sidelines of an informal meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Greece, which hosts the one-year rotating OSCE chairmanship, called the meeting to encourage debate on European security and create a new framework for regional cooperation.

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