Report: Moscow not against Russia-NATO meeting in June

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MOSCOW, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Russia does not in principle oppose the idea of holding a NATO-Russia ministerial meeting in Greece in late June, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a diplomatic source.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said earlier on Wednesday that a Russia-NATO meeting at the level of foreign ministers was scheduled for June 27 in the Greek resort of Corfu.

"I neither confirm nor deny this information. It is an American proposal. If they put it into practice, Russia will not be against it," the unidentified source was quoted as saying by Interfax.

A meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterparts from NATO countries had been planned for the second half of May. But Moscow postponed the meeting after NATO expelled two Russian diplomats from its headquarters on grounds of espionage in April.

The meeting would have been the first of its kind since NATO's suspension of high-level political contacts with Moscow shortly after Russia's brief war with Georgia last August.