PARIS, May 27: The North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) and Russia signed an historic treaty on a new security partnership today, consigning the Cold War to history and offering the prospect of a united Europe after more than half a century of bitter division.

NATO leaders gathered in Paris and hailed the ``founding act on mutual cooperation'' as inaugurating a new era of cooperation which would allow the alliance to expand eastwards without creating new tensions.

An upbeat Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, added to the celebratory mood of the occasion with a surprise announcement Russia would no longer target nuclear missiles at NATO states.

US President Bill Clinton said the pact realised the long-sought goal of ``a peaceful, democratic, undivided Europe.''

Yeltsin then stood up and made his impromptu statement on nuclear missiles. ``I have taken a decision today. Everything that is aimed at countries present here, all of those weapons, are going to have their warheads removed,'' Yeltsin said to applause from the 16 leaders of the military shield which protected the west from the now-defunct Soviet Union.

The offer took everyone, including Yeltsin's own officials, by surprise.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.