Brussels, Belgium, Dec 7, SPA -- NATO foreign ministers meetWednesday with counterparts from seven north African andMiddle Eastern countries in a drive to build closer tieswith nations on the alliance's volatile southern andsoutheastern flanks. The talks with Israel and six Arab nations will befollowed Thursday by the NATO ministers' regular year-endmeeting which is likely to be dominated by discussions onalliance missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. Ministers also want to discuss the crisis in Ukraine withtheir Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, who will attendpart of Thursday's meeting. It was not clear whether aseparate meeting would be held with Ukraine's ForeignMinister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko. The dinner meeting on Wednesday will mark 10 years ofNATO's "Mediterranean Dialogue" program with Israel,Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania. Itis the first time NATO will meet with them at such a highlevel. NATO is seeking to expand that low-level program to engagethose nations in counter terrorism cooperation and broadenties to include joint exercises, military training and helpwith defense reforms. "The time has come to hold out the hand of friendship,not only to eastern Europe, but also to our friends inNorth Africa and the Middle East," NATO Secretary GeneralJaap de Hoop Scheffer said last month on a visit to Algeria_ another first. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell isexpected to press European allies to come forward quicklywith troops needed to expand NATO's peacekeeping operationin Afghanistan and its training mission in Iraq.--SPA1143 Local Time 0843 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/222937