PRESIDENT Yeltsin of Russia will take two weeks holiday after he visits Germany next Wednesday for three days. A Kremlin spokesman said Mr Yeltsin would travel to the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The Kremlin said the 66 year old President would break off his vacation at the end of the month to meet the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, in Moscow.
Mr Yeltsin has been stepping up his workload steadily since his recovery from pneumonia. He has had a series of meetings with foreign leaders, including a summit with President Clinton in Helsinki last month.
Mr Yeltsin may go to Paris next month to sign an accord establishing a new relationship between NATO and Russia, the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, said yesterday.
"We agreed that if the NATO Russia agreement can be prepared in the coming weeks and if the preparations are satisfactory to all nations concerned, then the signing by the heads of state or government of the 16 member states and Russia can take place in Paris on May 27th," Mr Primakov said after meeting President Chirac of France.
Mr Primakov's two day trip to Paris is seen as part of Moscow's efforts to negotiate conditions for the planned eastward expansion of NATO that would inflict minimal damage and humiliation on Russia, which opposes the alliance's growth.
Russia, which has conceded that it cannot stop the expansion, has sought to win an agreement "that NATO will not permanently station troops or build permanent bases on the territory of new central European member states".
The 16 nation western defence alliance is expected to invite at least three of Moscow's former Warsaw Pact allies - Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic - to begin NATO membership negotiations at a summit in Madrid in July.
The announcement of a possible Paris summit raised speculation that President Chirac might also have accepted a compromise postponing for several years a demand for handing NATO's US held Naples southern command over to a European officer.
It would be politically difficult for Mr Chirac to host the signing while at the same time delaying France's full return to the alliance, writes analyst Daniel Vernet in Le Monde.
Mr Primakov stressed on Tuesday evening after meeting the Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe that a NATO Russia agreement would not mean Moscow changed its negative view of the expansion of the Atlantic Alliance, but was a way of limiting the consequences. Mr Primakov is due to have a fresh round of talks with the NATO Secretary General, Mr Javier Solana, in Moscow next Tuesday.
NATO sources say detailed negotiations between the alliance and Russia have advanced since Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin - agreed in Helsinki last month to build a partnership meant to ease Moscow's hostility to NATO's eastward enlargement.
NATO and international police monitors said yesterday they were examining security preparations by Bosnian authorities for Pope John Paul's visit to the capital Sarajevo this weekend.
"We have called in a group of international experts to review the plans of the local police, to advise and make suggestions," said Mr Manfred Seitner, commissioner of UN police monitors in Bosnia.
A team of security experts from Germany, Denmark and Ireland had "made a number of recommendations" to federation authorities, Mr Seitner, former director for security and intelligence in Denmark, told reporters.
Pilgrims from across Bosnia and abroad are expected to travel to Sarajevo to see the Pope pay a historic visit on Saturday and Sunday.
A wave of attacks on Catholic churches and Islamic mosques over the past two months has raised concerns about the Pope's security during his 25 hour trip. A monastery and a church in central Sarajevo were among the targets.
No one has been injured in the attacks and Muslim Croat federation police have made no arrests linked to the bombings.
The Pope, who has spoken often of Sarajevo's wartime suffering, was forced to cancel a planned visit during the 1992-95 Bosnian conflict after Serb forces refused to offer security guarantees.
This time the Pope will be travelling to a much safer city. Under a 1995 peace treaty, Bosnian Serb forces who pounded the city with shellfire were required to withdraw from surrounding suburbs last year.
Bosnian Serb authorities have agreed to this week's visit, and the Serb member of the new collective presidency, Mr Momcilo Krajisnik, supported the invitation to the Vatican.
The 31,000 strong NATO led Stabilisation Force (Sfor) said it was up to federation police to ensure security for the papal visit but said its soldiers would provide some assistance.
"Certainly the overriding responsibility for the security of the Pope and his entourage ... rests with the federation and its police forces," a spokesman, Maj Tony White, said.
Sfor has pledged to step up its' presence in the city, provide dogs for bomb squads, offer helicopters for medical evacuations and patrol Bosnia's skies, said Maj White.
The peace force had received a request from federation police for permission to carry rifles and set up antisniper and bomb disposal teams as part of security measures.
The request would require Sfor toe waive rules set down under the Dayton peace treaty, which restricts the number of rifles kept in police stations.
"Those requests are still outstanding and we're still considering them," said Maj White.