World

MUNICH — Germany, Europe's reluctant hegemon, is trying its best to lead in the face of multiple overlapping crises, but no one is following.

That was a central message from this year's Munich Security Conference, an annual event where leaders and diplomats from Europe, the Middle East and the United States gather to debate the world's problems.

It ended on Sunday on a far gloomier note than it started — with doubts being cast over a fledgling truce plan for Syria, with Russia defiant and confrontational, and Berlin struggling to win over European allies in the refugee crisis.

"You have leaders who are disconcerted and overwhelmed," said Constanze Stelzenmueller, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, describing this year's gathering as "oddly limp".

"The lack of confidence is as pervasive as a damp fog. Germany is doing its best on the diplomatic front, but there is a real struggle to find pragmatic solutions and form effective coalitions."

On the eve of the conference, a meeting of major powers hosted by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria, providing a glimmer of hope in a five-year war that has killed at least 250,000 people.

But within hours, signatories to the deal itself were calling it into question. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the chances of it failing were greater than success, and made clear Moscow would not stop its air strikes in support of Syrian forces descending on the northern city of Aleppo.

His remarks and those of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev appeared to dash hopes of a more constructive approach from Moscow. Medvedev warned of a new Cold War and evoked President Vladimir Putin's confrontational Munich speech of 2007, in which he accused the United States of a destructive drive to become the world's "one single master".

"They were both here to deliver a telegram from Putin," said Francois Heisbourg, special adviser to the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research. "The message was: we don't take you seriously, and we're going to make life difficult for you 24/7."

On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his German counterpart Steinmeier did their best to sound optimistic.

But by Sunday, one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's senior conservative allies in parliament, Norbert Roettgen, was telling the audience that he had no faith that Russia would behave constructively in Syria, accusing Moscow of creating "facts on the ground" there to bolster its negotiating position.

More leadership

Two years ago at this conference, Steinmeier, German President Joachim Gauck and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen all called for more active German leadership in foreign affairs, arguing that it was no longer acceptable to shy away from "Fuehrung" 70 years after the end of World War II.

Since then, Berlin has taken the diplomatic lead in the Ukraine crisis and agreed to join the fight against the Daesh terror group through the provision of arms to the Kurds and military support to allies carrying out air strikes in Syria.

But with a war-weary United States hesitant to become too entangled in Syria and anyway distracted by its own election campaign, Berlin is finding it difficult to forge consensus and looking more isolated than ever on its central objective — to limit the flow of refugees into Europe from Syria, and other troubled spots in the Middle East and Africa.

In Munich, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls made clear his country would not take a single refugee more than the 30,000 Paris has already agreed to accept under a European Union pact.

In a setback for Merkel, Valls also rejected the idea of a permanent mechanism for distributing refugees across Europe, a crucial plank of the German leader's push to convince Turkey to cooperate in stemming the flow of migrants.

Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda made clear in Munich that Russian aggression was a far bigger priority for his country than refugees.

The messages suggest that Merkel, whose popularity ratings have slid over her refugee policies ahead of three important state elections next month, may struggle to put together a convincing "coalition of the willing" in Europe to help her in the crisis.

"Despite valiant attempts by both the German foreign and defence ministers to put the refugee crisis at the heart of debates here, the issue that tops all others is Syria," said Jan Techau, director of Carnegie Europe, who also attended the conference.

Diplomats in Munich expressed doubts about the latest German initiative in the refugee crisis — Merkel's push to have NATO ships patrol the Aegean Sea to help Turkey and Greece crack down on criminal networks smuggling refugees into Europe.

"We're not sure how this will work," said one European diplomat. "It looks to me like Merkel just wants to show that Germany is not completely alone."

Heisbourg described the NATO initiative as the latest attempt by Germany to push Europe in the direction it wants on the crisis, but predicted failure.

"They are trying to set the agenda on their own terms but it's simply not working, it's a self-defeating approach," he said.

MUNICH — Violence in eastern Ukraine is intensifying and Russian-backed rebels have moved heavy weaponry back to the front line, international monitors warned on Saturday, as Moscow responded by accusing the West of dragging the world back 50 years.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described East-West relations as having "fallen into a new Cold War" and said NATO was "hostile and closed" towards Russia, in the latest sign that peace efforts have made scant progress almost two years since Moscow annexed Crimea.

"I sometimes wonder - are we in 2016 or 1962?" Medvedev asked in a speech to the Munich Security Conference.

Implementation of a deal agreed in Minsk a year ago, which would allow for the lifting of sanctions on Russia, and a lull in violence late last year raised hopes that the conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people could be resolved quickly.

But Lamberto Zannier, who heads the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitoring eastern Ukraine, said the situation had "become difficult again".

"We see a multiplication of incidents, violations of the ceasefire," he told Reuters at the Munich Security Conference. "We've seen cases of redeployment of heavy armaments closer to the contact line ... and multiple rocket launchers, artillery being used," he said, referring to the heavy weaponry that is meant to be removed under the Minsk deal.

Medvedev accused Kiev of trying to shift the blame onto Moscow for the continued shelling in the industrial regions of eastern Ukraine now under rebel control.

"The Minsk agreements have to be observed by everyone. But we believe that it's first and foremost up to the Kiev authorities to do that," he said.

The West says it has satellite images, videos and other evidence to show Russia is providing weapons to the rebels and that Moscow has troops engaged in the conflict that erupted following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea in 2014.

Russia denies such accusations.

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove said Russia had the power to "dial up and down" the conflict as it wished to put pressure on the government in Kiev but he said NATO did not want, nor currently see, a new Cold War.

Amnesty

Extended at the end of last year, the Minsk peace deal signed by Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany aims to give Ukraine back control of its border with Russia, see all heavy weapons withdrawn, return hostages and allow an internationally monitored local election in the east.

Zannier said the vote could not happen until there was a ceasefire and even then it would be difficult to do by mid-year because international observers need to be in place.

Medvedev said Ukraine, not Russia, was in breach of the Minsk deal because Kiev was yet to change Ukraine's constitution to grant special status to eastern Ukraine.

Russia wants an amnesty for mainly Russian-speaking people in the east who seized government buildings during the upheaval of early 2014, when pro-European protesters toppled Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.

"Without this amnesty, these people won't be able to participate in the elections," Medvedev said.

Kiev's Western backers acknowledge the government of President Petro Poroshenko must speed up reforms, especially those tied to its $10 billion International Monetary Fund bailout, but say Russia must respect Ukraine's sovereignty.

"Neither the people of Ukraine nor their partners in the international community believe they have done enough," US Secretary of State John Kerry said. 

SEOUL — The United States temporarily deployed an additional Patriot missile battery in South Korea in response to North Korea's nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch, ahead of talks next week to set up an even more sophisticated US missile defence in a move that has worried China and Russia.

The new tough stance follows South Korea's decision to shut down an inter-Korean factory park that had been the rival Koreas' last major symbol of cooperation, but that Seoul said had been used by North Korea to fund its nuclear and missile programmes. North Korea responded by deporting South Korean citizens, seizing South Korean assets and vowing to militarise the park.

South Korea on Friday cut off power and water supplies to the industrial park and announced that its planned talks with the United States on deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), one of the most advanced missile defence systems in the world, could start next week. Officials say they have yet to set a specific starting date for the talks.

In the meantime, the US military command in South Korea said Saturday that an air defence battery unit from Ft. Bliss, Texas, has been conducting ballistic missile training using the Patriot system at Osan Air Base near Seoul.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, commander of the US Eighth Army, said "exercises like this ensure we are always ready to defend against an attack from North Korea".

"North Korea's continued development of ballistic missiles against the expressed will of the international community requires the alliance to maintain effective and ready ballistic missile defences," he said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for US Forces Korea couldn't confirm how long the Patriot missile battery from Texas would be deployed in South Korea. The US military already has an operating Patriot missile defence system in South Korea to counter the threat of North Korea's shorter-range arsenal and medium-range missiles.

South Korean media have long speculated that the two countries are working on a THAAD deployment in South Korea, but it took the North's rocket launch last Sunday, which outsiders see as a test of banned ballistic missile technology, for the allies to formally announce they will begin the missile defence talks.

Beijing and Moscow are sensitive to the possibility of THAAD in South Korea; critics say the system could help US radar spot missiles in other countries.

China's state media quickly made the country's displeasure known, while Russia also expressed worries about the deployment. North Korea has previously warned of a nuclear war in the region and threatened to bolster its armed forces if the THAAD deployment occurs.

In Munich, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts to discuss the response to North Korea's actions, including the missile system. In talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Kerry expressed support for Seoul's decision to shut down the factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong and discussed a broad range of potential sanctions against the North, South Korea's foreign ministry said.

Seoul and Washington want to deploy the system at an early date and the upcoming talks will discuss where and exactly when the deployment can be made, a South Korean defence official said, requesting anonymity because of department rules.

The official said the THAAD deployment is designed to protect South Korea from North Korean threats and isn't targeting China or anyone else.

The current standoff flared after North Korea carried out a nuclear test last month, its fourth, followed by the long-range rocket launch on Sunday. Pyongyang said the launch, which put an Earth observation satellite into orbit, is part of a peaceful space programme. 

BRUSSELS — NATO ships are on their way to the Aegean Sea to help Turkey and Greece crack down on criminal networks smuggling refugees into Europe, the alliance's top commander said on Thursday.

Hours after NATO defence ministers agreed to use their maritime force in the eastern Mediterranean to help combat traffickers, Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove said he was working quickly to design the mission.

"We are sailing the ships in the appropriate direction," Breedlove told a news conference, and the mission plan would be refined during the time they were en route. "That's about 24 hours," he said.

The plan, which was first raised only on Monday by Germany and Turkey, took NATO by surprise and is aimed at helping the continent tackle its worst migration crisis since World War II. More than a million asylum-seekers arrived last year.

Unlike the EU's maritime mission off the Italian coast, which brings rescued migrants to Europe's shores, NATO will return migrants to Turkey even if they are picked up in Greek waters.

Britain's defence minister said that marked a significant change in policy. "They won't be taken to Greece and that's a crucial difference," Michael Fallon told reporters.

NATO will also monitor the Turkey-Syria land border for people-smugglers, said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

Although the plan is still to be detailed by NATO generals, the allies are likely to use the ships to work with Turkish and Greek coastguards and the European Union border agency Frontex.

"There is now a criminal syndicate that is exploiting these poor people and this is an organised smuggling operation," US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter told reporters.

"Targeting that is the way that the greatest effect can be had. That is the principal intent of this," Carter said.

The numbers of people fleeing war and failing states, mainly in the Middle East and North Africa, show little sign of falling, despite winter weather that makes sea crossings even more perilous.

A 3 billion euro ($3.4 billion) deal between the EU and Turkey to stem the flows has yet to have a big impact.

Seeking ships

Germany said it would take part in the NATO mission along with Greece and Turkey, while the United States, NATO's most powerful member, said it fully supported the plan.

The alliance's so-called Standing NATO Maritime Group Two has five ships near Cyprus, led by Germany and with vessels from Canada, Italy, Greece and Turkey. Breedlove said NATO would need allies to contribute to sustain the mission over time.

Denmark is expected to offer a ship, according to a German government source. The Netherlands may also contribute.

"It is important that we now act quickly," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said.

Intelligence gathered about people-smugglers will be handed to Turkish coastguards to allow them to combat the traffickers more effectively, rather than having NATO act directly against the criminals, diplomats said.

Greek and Turkish ships will remain in their respective territorial waters, given sensitivities between the two countries.

NATO and the EU are eager to avoid the impression that the 28-nation military alliance is now tasked to stop refugees or treat them as a threat.

"This is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats," Stoltenberg said. 

SEOUL — North Korea on Thursday ordered the immediate expulsion of all South Koreans from the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone and the seizure of their factory assets in response to Seoul's decision to shut down the complex.

The measures mark a significant escalation of cross-border tensions that have been elevated since North Korea carried out a nuclear test last month and a long-range rocket launch on Sunday.

In a statement published by the official KCNA news agency, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said it was closing Kaesong and declaring it a military area.

It also announced that military hotlines with South Korea and the main communication channel through the border truce village of Panmunjom would be cut as soon as the expulsion of South Korean citizens had taken place.

It did not specify how long the links would be cut for.

"South Korean enemy forces will experience themselves the harsh and painful price they should pay for halting the Kaesong industrial complex," it said.

All South Koreans were ordered to leave Kaesong by 5:00pm Pyongyang time (0830 GMT) and told they could take nothing but their personal possessions.

'Seize all assets' 

"We seize all assets of the South Korean companies and related organisations including machinery, raw materials and goods," the statement said.

The order to leave immediately was published on KCNA just 30 minutes before the expulsion deadline.

Seoul had announced on Wednesday it was closing down operations at Kaesong, which lies 10 kilometres inside North Korea, in protest over the North's nuclear test and rocket launch.

The owners of the 124 South Korean companies operating factories in Kaesong had sent hundreds of empty trucks into the North on Thursday morning to start loading up goods and equipment.

"We will make the utmost efforts to make sure that all our nationals return home safely," Seoul's unification ministry said in a statement.

Several people who crossed back into the South on Thursday morning said they had noticed an increased military presence in Kaesong, including armed soldiers carrying backpacks and sleeping bags.

Kim Soo-hee, a nurse working at a medical clinic in the complex, she had seen several military trucks arriving in Kaesong and a number of armed soldiers with backpacks and sleeping bags.

"There were more soldiers around the complex than usual," she said.

In September 2014, Pyongyang drafted a new operational regulation — rejected by Seoul — that would have allowed the North to detain South Korean businessmen in Kaesong in the event of an unresolved business dispute.

The CPRK statement did not specify what might happen to anyone failing to make the expulsion deadline.

Defending its decision to halt operations at Kaesong on Thursday, Seoul said North Korea had been using the hundreds of millions of dollars in hard-currency that it earned from Kaesong to fund its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

Owners' anger 

The government's move was slammed as "utterly incomprehensible" by the Kaesong company owners who said their businesses were being destroyed by politics.

Born out of the "sunshine" reconciliation policy of the late 1990s, Kaesong opened in 2004 and proved remarkably resilient, riding out repeated crises that ended every other facet of inter-Korean cooperation.

Earlier in the day, the United States also signalled unilateral moves against North Korea, with the US Senate unanimously adopting a bill expanding sanctions.

The United States and its main Asian allies, South Korea and Japan, have led a push for tough UN Security Council sanctions, but have met resistance from North Korea's main diplomatic protector China.

Although fiercely critical of Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, Beijing is more concerned at the prospect of Kim's regime being pushed to collapse — triggering chaos on China's border.

The Senate bill would punish any person or entity importing goods, technology or training related to weapons of mass destruction, or engaging in human rights abuses.

Penalties would include the seizure of assets, visa bans and denial of government contracts.

It also aims to cut down on money laundering and narcotics trafficking — two major illicit activities believed to be funnelling millions of dollars into leader Kim Jong-un's inner circle. 

SEOUL — South Korea on Wednesday announced the total shutdown of a jointly run industrial park in North Korea, saying Pyongyang had been using it to fund its nuclear weapons programmes.

As well as depriving the cash-strapped North of a much-needed source of hard currency, the move was a powerful message of intent in response to the North's nuclear test last month and Sunday's long-range rocket launch.

During more than a decade of operations at the Kaesong estate, Seoul has never before shut it down — despite numerous provocations, ranging from nuclear tests to the shelling of a South Korean border island.

In a statement, the government said it had been left with no option but to take "extraordinary measures" to compel the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

The funds Seoul had poured into Kaesong over the years "have ultimately been wrongly harnessed in the service of upgrading North Korea's nuclear weapons and long-range missiles", the statement said.

As a result, the government "has decided to completely shut down" the factory complex.

Set up in 2004 as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, Kaesong lies just 10 kilometres across the border in North Korea.

Home to 124 South Korean companies, employing about 53,000 North Korean workers, its closure marks the demise of the sole remaining major cooperation project between the two Koreas.

Major cash source 

The government statement said Kaesong had provided the North with 616 billion won ($560 million) in cash over the years — including 132 billion won in 2015 alone.

Seoul's unilateral move comes as the UN Security Council is still struggling to agree on how far to go in punishing the North for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch.

The North's main diplomatic protector, China, has been resisting pressure from the US and its allies for severe economic penalties.

Tokyo — which feels particularly threatened by North Korea's bellicose moves — unveiled its own fresh sanctions Wednesday.

These included a ban on North Korean ships entering Japanese ports. "Third country" ships that have visited the country will also be barred.

North Korea insists its rocket launches are part of a peaceful space programme, but most in the international community see them as disguised ballistic missile tests.

In the immediate aftermath of Sunday's launch, the US and South Korea announced plans to start formal talks on deploying an advanced missile defence system in the South.

That drew protests from Russia and China, who fear the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System could target their weapons.

Moscow on Wednesday warned the move could "provoke an arms race in Northeast Asia and complicate the resolution of the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula".

Kaesong — a vibrant complex that produces labour-intensive goods like clothing and kitchenware — had remained largely immune to turbulent inter-Korean relations.

Even in 2010, when the South accused the North of sinking one of its warships and imposed punitive sanctions, Kaesong stayed open. 

The only exception was in 2013 during a period of heightened cross-border tensions when Pyongyang effectively shut down the zone for five months by withdrawing its workers.

Hostage fears 

Hong Yong-pyo, Seoul's unification minister in charge of cross-border affairs, said the 184 South Korean managers currently working in Kaesong had been summoned home.

He demanded that Pyongyang ensure "the safe return of our citizens" — a nod to what analysts said were justifiable concerns of a possible hostage situation.

The North Koreans "may detain one or two South Korean nationals and try to use them as a bargaining chip for future negotiations", said Lee In-bae, director of the Seoul-based Korea Peninsula Future Forum.

Hong Hyun-ik of Seoul's Sejong Institute think-tank said Kaesong in the past "symbolised the clear line between political and military turbulence, and civil and economic cooperation”.

"But that line has now been crossed. 

"I'm afraid of the impact the decision will have on our sovereign ratings, our economy and our financial systems," he said.

The reaction from the owners of the South Korean firms in Kaesong was one of outrage.

While Minister Hong said the shutdown had been "unavoidable" the association representing the owners called it "utterly incomprehensible".

"The government gave us no time to help minimise our financial damage before announcing the decision," their statement complained.

SEOUL — North Korea's army chief of staff has been executed, South Korean media reported Wednesday, in what would amount to the latest in a series of purges and executions of top officials by leader Kim Jong-un.

Ri Yong-gil, Chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff was executed earlier this month for forming a political faction and corruption, Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.

The report came at a time of highly elevated tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North's recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

Ri was often seen accompanying Kim Jong-un on inspection tours, but his name was conspicuously missing from state media reports of a recent major party meeting and celebrations over Sunday's rocket launch.

"The execution... suggests that Kim Jong-un still feels insecure about his grip on the country's powerful military," Yonhap quoted the source as saying.

"It shows that Kim's reign of terror still persists," the source was quoted as saying. 

The National Intelligence Service in Seoul declined to comment on the report.

In May last year the NIS said Kim had his defence chief, Hyon Yong-chol, executed — reportedly with the use of an anti-aircraft gun.

Hyon's fate was never confirmed by Pyongyang but he has never been seen or heard of since. Some analysts have suggested he was purged and imprisoned.

Reports — some confirmed, some not — of purges, executions and disappearances have been common since Kim took power following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011. 

A large number of senior officials, especially military cadres, were removed or demoted as the young leader sought to solidify his control over the powerful army. 

In the most high-profile case, Kim had his influential uncle, Jang Song-thaek, executed in December 2013 for charges including treason and corruption. 

BRUSSELS — NATO is ready to agree on Wednesday its boldest steps yet to deter Russia from any attack in the Baltics or eastern Europe, setting out ways to rapidly deploy air, naval and ground forces without resorting to cold war-era military bases.

In an effort to dissuade Moscow after its 2014 annexation of Crimea, NATO defence ministers are setting up a network of new alliance outposts, forces on rotation, warehoused equipment and regular war games, all backed by a rapid-reaction force.

"We need to deploy troops and ships to deter the aggression, the threats that we have seen," British Defence Minister Michael Fallon said as he arrived for the meeting in Brussels. "NATO means what it says, that we are ready to deter any kind of pressure."

Troop numbers, spending plans and logistics are still to be decided, but NATO officials say the decision to go ahead with such a substantial military presence on NATO's eastern borders will be one of the biggest for the alliance in decades.

That has been cemented by the United States' decision to seek a $3.4 billion budget for European reassurance initiatives in 2017. The fourfold increase in Washington's spending in the region will go to rotate more troops through the region and provide more tanks, armoured vehicles and other support.

It reinforces the message from US President Barack Obama in 2014 that NATO will help ensure the independence of the three Baltic states, which for decades were part of the Soviet Union.

US Defence Secretary Ash Carter, speaking to reporters travelling with him to Brussels, said it was important for all NATO allies to increase military spending. "I'll be looking for others in NATO to echo [us] in our investment," Carter said.

Not the cold war

Carter said the plan aimed to move NATO to a "full deterrence posture" to thwart any aggression.

"It's not going to look like it did back in Cold War days, but it will constitute, in today's terms, a strong deterrent," Carter said. In the past, the United States stationed some 300,000 troops in Europe.

Eventually, NATO could have up to 1,000 troops in each of the six countries the alliance is looking to reinforce: Lithuanian, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. They will be backed by a rapid-reaction force that includes air, naval and special operations units of up to 40,000 personnel.

The crisis in Ukraine, where the West accuses Russia of fomenting a separatist rebellion, and the Western economic sanctions on Moscow have raised concerns about a new cold war.

Few European NATO allies openly describe Russia as a threat, for fear of antagonising the continent's main energy supplier. But one senior NATO official says the new deployments in Europe were driven by a consensus that the alliance had entered a new era of tension with Russia.

"This is not a thunderstorm that's going to blow over," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This is climate change, and we have to prepare for the long haul."

That view was echoed by non-NATO member Georgia, which fought a five-day war with Russia in 2008 that left two of its regions occupied by Russian military. "With the Kremlin, nothing can be excluded," Tinatin Khidasheli, Georgia's defence minister, told Reuters. "They cannot show weakness."

Russia denies it has acted aggressively. Moscow blames the West for stirring anti-Russian feeling across the east, particularly in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, which it considers its historic sphere of influence.

BRUSSELS — NATO will take any request to help with the refugee crisis "very seriously", chief Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday after Germany and Turkey sought the alliance's assistance in combatting human smugglers.

Defence ministers from the 28-nation group will discuss the issue at a meeting in Brussels Wednesday and Thursday when they review NATO's response to a more assertive Russia and the security threat posed by the Syria crisis.

"I think we will take very seriously the request from Turkey and other allies to look into what NATO can do to help them cope and deal with the crisis, and all the challenges they face, not least in Turkey," Stoltenberg told a news conference.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on a visit to Ankara on Monday that Turkey and Germany would ask NATO to help police the Turkish coast to prevent smugglers from packing migrants into boats for the perilous crossing to Greece.

Turkey — the only Muslim-majority nation in NATO and one of its largest armies — was the main gateway for the more than one million migrants and refugees who crossed into Europe last year.

The problem shows no sign of slowing — more than 70,000 made the dangerous crossing from Turkey to Greece in January, with over 400 dying, according to the International Organisation for Migration (OIM), and there are fears hundreds of thousands more could follow as the fighting in Syria intensifies.

'Desperate situation' 

Former Norwegian premier Stoltenberg said that Russian involvement in Syria was "undermining" peace efforts and "making a desperate situation worse" as more refugees fled the fighting.

"Calm and easing tensions is more important than ever," he added.

As the crisis in Syria deepens, some NATO allies are wary of getting sucked into a conflict which defies solution, especially as Assad's forces now retake ground in a major Russian-backed offensive.

Diplomatic sources said the German-Turkish proposal had come as a surprise.

Greece, whose relations with its NATO partner Turkey are strained over a host of issues, expressed scepticism and contacted Berlin Tuesday to insist on safeguards if such a mission went ahead.

A Greek government spokesman in Athens said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had told German Chancellor Angela Merkel "that any involvement by the alliance must be confined solely to the Turkish coast and guarantee Greek sovereign rights". 

US Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute told a separate news briefing that such a German-Turkish request would not be unusual and member states regularly asked for help.

At the same time, Lute said the European Union had the "primary responsibility" for managing the migrant crisis.

"This is fundamentally an issue which should be addressed a couple of kilometres from here in the EU," he said, referring to the fact that Brussels is headquarters for the bloc.

The European Union meanwhile said it would welcome any extra assistance in dealing with a crisis which has put the 28-nation bloc under huge strain.

"Of course it is for NATO to take a decision on the opportunity and modalities of the eventual involvement," European Comission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told a news briefing. 

"We welcome all discussions on potential measures which could contribute to addressing the refugee crisis, save lives at sea and improve the management of migratory flows and borders."

Stoltenberg said that in December, NATO agreed a package of measures to reassure and support Turkey after Russia launched its air campaign against rebels in Syria seeking to oust long-time Moscow ally President Bashar Assad.

This package included deploying AWACS surveillance aircraft over Turkey, air policing and an increased maritime presence, and was agreed after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in late November for violating its airspace.

BAD AIBLING, Germany — Two commuter trains crashed head-on Tuesday in southern Germany, killing 10 people and injuring 80 as they slammed into each other on a curve after an automatic safety braking system apparently failed, the transport minister said.

The regional trains collided before 7am on the single line that runs near Bad Aibling in the German state of Bavaria. Aerial footage shot by APTN showed that the impact tore the two engines apart, shredded metal train cars and flipped several of them on their sides off the rails.

The first emergency units were on the scene within three minutes of receiving the call, but with a river on one side and a forest on the other, it took hours to reach some of the injured in the wreckage. Hundreds of rescue crews using helicopters and small boats shuttled injured passengers to the other side of the Mangfall River to waiting ambulances, which took them to hospitals across southern Bavaria.

Nine people were reported dead immediately while a tenth died later in a hospital, police spokesman Stefan Sonntag said, adding that the two train drivers were thought to be among the dead and one person was still missing in the wreckage.

"We have little more than hope of finding them still alive," he said. "This is the biggest accident we have had in years in this region."

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said safety systems on the stretch had been checked as recently as last week, but Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt suggested that a system designed to automatically brake trains if they accidentally end up on the same track didn't seem to have functioned properly.

Dobrindt, however, said it was too early to draw a definitive conclusion.

"The site is on a curve. We have to assume that the train drivers had no visual contact and hit each other without braking," Dobrindt told reporters in Bad Aibling, adding that speeds of up to 100kph were possible on the stretch.

Black boxes from both trains had been recovered and are now being analysed, which should show what went wrong, Dobrindt said.

"We need to determine immediately whether it was a technical problem or a human mistake," he said.

Authorities had initially reported 150 injured but Sonntag later lowered that figure to 80. Seventeen had injuries considered serious, he said.

Each train can hold up to 1,000 passengers and they are commonly used by children travelling to school. Fewer than 200 people in all were on board Tuesday, however, because of regional holidays to celebrate Carnival.

"We're lucky that we're on the Carnival holidays, because usually many more people are on these trains," regional police chief Robert Kopp said.

About 700 emergency personnel from Germany and neighbouring Austria were involved in the rescue effort, using about a dozen helicopters. Train operator Bayerische Oberlandbahn started a hotline for family and friends desperate to check on passengers.

"This is a huge shock. We are doing everything to help the passengers, relatives and employees," said Bernd Rosenbusch, the head of the Bayerische Oberlandbahn.

In Munich, 60 kilometres away, the city blood centre put out an urgent call for immediate donations in the wake of the crash.

Germany is known for the quality of its train service, but the country has seen several other accidents, typically at road crossings. Most recently, a train driver and a passenger were killed in May when a train hit the trailer of a tractor in western Germany, and another 20 people were injured.

In 2011, 10 people were killed and 23 injured in a head-on collision of a passenger train and a cargo train on a single-line track close to Saxony-Anhalt's state capital of Magdeburg in eastern Germany.

Germany's worst train accident took place in 1998, when a high-speed ICE train crashed in the northern German town of Eschede, killing 101 people and injuring more than 80.