BRUSSELS, Belgium, December 19, SPA -- NATO and Russia will resumediplomatic contacts for the first time since the war inGeorgia, the alliance's spokesman said Thursday. Spokesman James Appathurai said NATO's secretary-generaland Russia's ambassador to the Western alliance will meetinformally Friday _ the first such meeting since NATO frozediplomatic contacts in the wake of Moscow's invasion ofGeorgia in August. Russian Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin has said previously hewould welcome the resumption of ties, but his missionplayed down expectations for the meeting with SecretaryGeneral Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. «We don't expect anything specific ... but it is a stepin unfreezing our relations,» said Igor Semenenko, asenior Russian diplomat in Brussels, according to a report of Associated Press.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/617607