Russia "needs no proof of the guilt" of Osama bin Laden in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Brussels Tuesday, hours after a US envoy said he had supplied such proof to NATO.
"For us it is already clear," he told reporters after a meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
"The only thing we do not know is the exact role he played," said Putin, referring to the renegade Saudi millionaire whose al-Qaeda network is the United States' number one suspect in the attacks on Washington and New York.
Earlier Tuesday, the US said it had given NATO hard evidence of bin Laden's hand in the attacks, setting the stage for the alliance to retaliate, although the US has not yet asked for military help.
The proof reportedly supplied by the US cleared the way for activation of the so-called Article Five in NATO's founding treaty, which says an attack from abroad on any ally is considered an attack on them all.
"The facts are clear and compelling" on links between bin Laden, al-Qaeda and Afghanistan, which is believed harboring bin Laden, NATO chief George Robertson said after the 19 allied ambassadors met with Frank Taylor, Washington's ambassador-at-large and counter-terrorism coordinator.
"The information presented points conclusively to an al-Qaeda role in the September 11 attacks" which heavily damaged the Pentagon in Washington and leveled the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, said Robertson.
Putin said "the fight against terrorism will only be efficient if we unite the efforts of the entire international community."
And he said his country was prepared to "profoundly change" its relationships with both NATO and the EU's fledgling security bodies in the global battle against terrorism.
Putin was in Brussels for two days of talks with EU and NATO officials centering on global terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The agenda of the biannual summit was also to deal with building EU-Russia trade and strengthening political dialogue, but was clearly to be dominated by terrorism.
Putin established his country as a key player in the war on terrorism last week when he threw his backing solidly behind Washington and sent Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov here to tell NATO that "Russia is ready" with logistical and materiel support.
After the Wednesday summit, Putin was to meet with Robertson at a location not disclosed for security reasons.
Robertson has been drawing Russia more closely into the alliance fold in the post-attack surge of solidarity with the US. Last Friday he hailed a "a growing coalition... around the world," pointedly embracing Russia, in the US-led anti-terror campaign.
In grappling with global terrorist networks, Ivanov said after his meeting with NATO defense ministers here last week that it was necessary "to have greater coordination of special services," and that "Russia is ready for that," although he stressed Russia would not send troops into Afghanistan again.
Putin was meanwhile being criticized back home by the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), which was urging the EU to demand that Russia respect human rights in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
"The European Union has to talk with a single voice and demand respect for the commitments relating to the protection of human rights and humanitarian law, which the Russian authorities have endorsed and which form the basis of Russia’s partnership with the EU," the FIDH said in a statement in Moscow -- BRUSSELS (AFP)
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