Strasbourg, France  - Rioters set fire to a five-storey hotel and two low-rise buildings in Strasbourg Saturday as left-wing protests against a NATO summit in the French city turned violent.

French security sources said some of the rioters, believed to be mainly anarchists dedicated to bringing down the western system, had been carrying loaded guns when police arrested them.

Stras

Strasbourg, France  - NATO leaders meeting in Strasbourg on Saturday resolved a potentially embarrassing rift by picking Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance's new secretary general, outgoing NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.

"Every state and government believed that Anders Fogh Rasmussen was the man to lead NATO and the 28 members through the 21st century," said de Hoop Scheffer, who is to step down on July 31.

Turkish opposition to Rasmussen had threatened to overshadow a summit celebrating the 60th anniversary of NATO's founding.

Strasbourg, France - NATO leaders agreed Saturday to restart direct talks with Russia, while simultaneously condemning the country's military build-up in Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"Despite our current disagreements, Russia is of particular importance to us as a partner and neighbour," NATO heads of state and government said in a summit declaration issued in Strasbourg.

Strasbourg, France - A hotel which was set on fire Saturday by anti-NATO demonstrators in Strasbourg was gutted by the flames, but had been unoccupied before it was attacked, a German news television channel, N-TV, reported.

Earlier television pictures had shown the entire ground floor of the five-storey building on fire. N-TV said the flames then spread.

N-TV said the 78-room hotel had been vacated in advance of the NATO summit which brought US President Barack Obama and other leaders to the city.

Strasbourg, France/Ankara - US President Barack Obama was instrumental in ending Turkish obstruction to the appointment of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the new NATO secretary general, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.

Erdogan told Turkish television that Obama had offered Ankara a number of guaranties, which he did not detail.