MOSCOW - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Tuesday that some people within NATO are opposed to the alliance's strengthening ties with Russia but said closer relations were necessary to counter current security threats.

"It is completely obvious that between NATO countries and Russia there really is a mutual understanding related to the need for some collective actions to counter new threats and challenges," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

"At the same time not everyone in NATO welcomes the development of relations with Russia."

Ivanov, who spoke to reporters in the city of Samara on the Volga River, added: "Maybe not everyone in Russia welcomes the development of relations with NATO either."

Relations between the former Cold War foes, which were strained in the 1990s by NATO's eastward expansion and its air strikes in Yugoslavia in 1999 - have warmed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States and Russia's support for the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan.

Last month, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson held talks with officials in Moscow on proposals to give Russia more of a voice in certain NATO affairs.

On Monday, the commander of Russia's Baltic Fleet warned that plans to admit the former Soviet republics in the Baltics to NATO would still be perceived as a significant threat by Moscow, despite the improved relations.