BRUSSELS -- NATO and Russia resumed formal contacts Wednesday eight months after they were suspended because of last year's war with Georgia, officials said. The agenda was dominated by continuing differences over Georgia and cooperation in the Afghanistan war. "We should not shy away from a number of issues on which we disagree," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said before the meeting between ambassadors of the alliance's 28 nations and Russia's envoy to the organization. Wednesday's talks were being held under the framework of the NATO-Russia Council, a panel set up to improve relations between the former Cold War foes. "The NATO-Russia Council is not a fair-weather body," de Hoop Scheffer said. "It doesn't mean we always agree on everything." But he noted that on issues such as piracy and the war in Afghanistan, Russia and NATO had continued to cooperate closely despite the diplomatic hiatus. Formal ties were suspended following the five-day war in August. NATO nations accused Moscow of using disproportionate force to eject Georgian forces that had occupied breakaway province South Ossetia's capital. Russian forces overwhelmed the Georgian army, sending relations between Moscow and Western capitals to post-Cold War lows. Moscow later recognized the self-proclaimed independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia _ another separatist region _ in a move that NATO strongly opposes. Still, relations have improved significantly since then, and NATO heads of state approved the resumption of formal contacts at their summit earlier this month in Strasbourg, France. Russia has allowed NATO nations to use its road and rail networks to transport military supplies to the international force in Afghanistan, after the main route through Pakistan came under repeated attack by pro-Taliban guerrillas. NATO would like Russia to also open its airspace to military cargo flights, and wants Moscow to provide weapons and training for Afghan government forces. Diplomats from both sides said one of the principal aims of Wednesday's talks would be to prepare a meeting between NATO foreign ministers and their Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, tentatively scheduled for May 19. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to attend, officials said. Igor Semenenko, a senior diplomat in Russia's mission to NATO, said his government also intended to discuss NATO's upcoming exercises in Georgia. Moscow bitterly opposes Georgia's desire to join NATO and contends the country is preparing for military aggression.
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