NATO likely to agree to resume Russia ties: U.S.

By David Brunnstrom and Sue Pleming

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO foreign ministers will likely decide on Thursday to resume formal ties with Russia cut off after Moscow's incursion into Georgia last year, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

"We expect that the ministers will be getting here and agreeing that this is what they think," the official told a news briefing on the eve of the meeting.

He was asked if he expected the 26 NATO ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to agree to resume formal ties at their meeting in Brussels.

"I anticipate there will be a meeting of minds on that. It won't be a formal decision but it will play out over time."

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said after hosting a dinner of NATO ministers and non-NATO EU counterparts that no decision had yet been reached, but that could come tomorrow.

"The majority is in favor of starting again that experience, without too many illusions," he told reporters.

The U.S. official said meetings would resume at a high-level in the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), but added that a NATO-Russia foreign ministers' meeting was not scheduled any time soon.

The official said U.S. and Russian ambassadors to NATO had met on Wednesday to "take stock" of the situation and it was necessary to look at how the NRC could be made more productive.