NATO recasts strategy as Ukraine signs ceasefire deal with Pro-Russia rebels

Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels have reportedly signed an agreement on a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine starting at 6 pm (1500 GMT) on Friday, prompting NATO leaders to review their Russia strategy.

NATO members at their summit in Wales vowed to reinvent the military alliance after a bloody struggle with Russia over Ukraine's future ended in failure.

Russian news agencies, which reported the news, said there was no immediate confirmation of the deal at the talks in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, which also included representatives of Russia and the OSCE security watchdog.

Interfax news agency quoted a source close to the talks as saying a 14-point deal had been reached and RIA news agency quoted what it said was a rebel Twitter account saying an agreement had been signed.

NATO will be creating a spearhead reaction force of 4,000 to 5,000 troops, marking a historic shift to the defence of Europe as the alliance's central concern once again.

This new rapid-reaction force could be deployed within 48 hours to hotspots, giving the 28-member military alliance a significant presence in whatever region is the target of destabilisation.

The move is in response to the speed with which Russian forces infiltrated Ukraine's Crimea region in March, which has focused NATO thinking on speeding up its ability to respond if a similar crisis occurred on NATO territory.

NATO's existing response force takes five days for the first units to arrive.

NATO appears to have shelved a proposal to permanently station alliance troops in new bases along its eastern flank as a means of providing a deterrent to further Russian aggression. Member countries such as Germany, however, rejected the idea because such a move could only provoke Moscow

Russian stocks rallied on news that a truce had been reached. The rouble was slightly stronger against the dollar.