NATO allies agree on common initiatives

BRUSSELS - NATO leaders achieved a series of landmark agreements - ranging from a military withdrawal deadline from Afghanistan, a decision to build a missile defense system to protect its European members and beefing up cooperation with Russia - at the Lisbon summit over the weekend.

In their declaration after the gathering, the leaders of NATO's 28 members set a deadline at the end of 2014 for a halt to combat operations in Afghanistan, agreeing on an exit strategy to extricate the vast majority of the 138,000 international troops there waging an increasingly unpopular war.

The summit, attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, elicited agreements on a "transition strategy" for Afghanistan that is to hand over of the country's provinces to Afghan security forces beginning next year - a task to be completed within a timeline of four years.