NATO nations agreed Thursday to broaden their peacekeeping mission in Kosovo to include training for the newly independent nation's security forces. NATO troops will help train Kosovo's troops even though a minority of member nations, led by Spain, have not recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia in February. "With this decision, NATO will be able to assist Kosovo in building necessary, democratic security institutions," alliance Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said at the meeting of NATO defense ministers.

"This Kosovo security force will be lightly armed, democratic and will focus initially on crisis response and civil emergency response," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

He told The Associated Press that the new training tasks could be launched under the current mandate of the 15,700-strong peacekeeping force without being vetoed by Russia. Moscow strongly supports Serbia's efforts to cling to Kosovo, a region it considers its religious and historic heartland.

Under the training plan, NATO will help disband the existing Kosovo Protection Corps made up mostly of former ethnic Albanian guerrillas who fought Serbia in the late 1990s. They will be replaced by a force of about 2,500 based on the paramilitary police deployed in many European nations.

Appathurai said the training is expected to start soon, and diplomats added that the aim was to have an initial force of 1,200 ready by year's end. Diplomats said the 600 or so Spanish troops serving in Kosovo would not take part in the training.

Although Appathurai stressed the planned multiethnic nature of the force, it was uncertain whether members of Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority would participate.

Meanwhile, Russia signaled its continued annoyance over Kosovo by calling for the dismissal of the top U.N. official in the new nation over plans for the European Union to replace the current U.N. police mission.

Russia contends the EU mission is illegal because it has not been approved by the U.N. Security Council. The U.N. has overseen Kosovo's administration since a 1999 NATO bombing campaign halted Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

Russia, an ally of Serbia, opposes a plan by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to hand over to the EU more authority over Kosovo's police, courts and other official duties. In a report Thursday, Ban said he wants to let local authorities run the disputed territory with help from the EU.

In his report, Ban said he intended to "reconfigure the international civil presence" in Kosovo "in keeping with the European Union's expressed willingness to play an enhanced operational role in Kosovo in the area of the rule of law."

Council members were still studying Ban's plan, said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, this month's council president.

NATO also has a problem with the EU's planned 2,200 police and justice law-and-order mission because Turkey objects to increased security cooperation between NATO and the European Union, which includes its rival, Cyprus.

Alliance officials are hoping a solution can be found that will allow NATO troops and the proposed EU police mission to work together.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates also was expected to use the two-day NATO meeting to push allies to send more troops and police instructors to Afghanistan.

NATO's military mission in Afghanistan has more than doubled - to 51,000 - over the past two years, but commanders say it still lacks units for critical tasks such as air transport and intelligence. In particular, the United States wants allies to provide training teams to build up the Afghan police.

Police training has lagged behind efforts to forge an Afghan army, but commanders say an effective law enforcement force is key to stabilizing the country and winning support among the local population.

NATO defense ministers must also discuss how they will fill the gap left by the scheduled withdrawal of more than 3,000 Marines in October or November.

Gates sent in the Marines to reinforce allied troops fighting the Taliban in dangerous southern Afghanistan, but said they would only stay for seven months. Washington has said it will not send extra troops to replace them, leaving it up to allies to fill the void.

Part of the gap will be filled by about 700 French troops moving into eastern Afghanistan. They will free up U.S. forces for the south, but NATO will still need to find more.

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Associated Press writer John Heilprin at the United Nations contributed to this report.