Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel will embark Wednesday on a 12-day trip that will take in Singapore before heading to Europe for talks with NATO allies.

The tour will begin with a brief stop at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, where the US defense secretary will receive briefings on missile defense, his office said.

Two dozen GBI interceptors are deployed in Alaska to deal with the ballistic threat from North Korea in particular.

Hagel will then travel to Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, a major annual forum dedicated to the security of the Asia-Pacific region, which runs from May 30 to June 1.

There, he will call once again for strengthening partnerships with countries in the region as part of the US "pivot" towards Asia, and hold a series of meetings with defense ministers, though Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby would not specify with whom.

Hagel's fifth trip to the Asia-Pacific "is an important opportunity to build on the momentum we've achieved in strengthening our engagement and our alliances and partnerships in the Pacific region," Kirby said.

Hagel will then attend a June 3-4 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

"He views this as a particularly important meeting, of course, as it is the first since Russia's incursions into Ukraine and the last before September's NATO Summit in Wales," said Kirby.

The spokesman added that Hagel "believes our European allies must use this crisis as an opportunity to revitalize NATO and enhance their commitments to collective defense."

Hagel will then travel to Romania and from there to France.

India wins Italy appeal over helicopter deal
Rome (AFP) May 23, 2014 - India on Friday partially won an appeal against an Italian court order rejecting its request to recover bank guarantees over a scrapped helicopter deal at the centre of a bribery scandal.

Italian defence and aerospace giant Finmeccanica, which owns helicopter maker AgustaWestland, said the court in Milan had "partially upheld the complaint" from the Indian defence ministry.

The company said in a statement that the court ruling would allow India to encash "an amount of 228 million euros ($311 million) maximum against a call seeking to cash 278 million euros".

"AgustaWestland will assert its rights to recover the aforesaid amounts in the arbitration process already initiated," it added.

India had cancelled the deal in January to buy 12 luxury helicopters amid allegations that the company paid bribes to win the 556-million-euro contract.

In March, a court in Milan had ruled in favour of AgustaWestland, preventing India from encashing guarantees of more than 278 million euros.

India had suspended the contract in 2013 after Italian investigators began looking into accusations that AgustaWestland paid bribes to win the contract in 2010.

Italian prosecutors suspect kickbacks worth around 10 percent of the deal -- $67.6 million -- were paid to Indian officials to swing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland, according to Italian media reports.

The company denies any wrongdoing and the deal is currently under arbitration in India.