WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2002 — U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld leaves Sunday to attend NATO ministerial meetings in Warsaw, Poland, a senior DoD official said here today.
   The Warsaw NATO meeting is the last major ministerial-level event NATO ministers can use to prepare for the NATO's November summit in Prague, Czech Republic, the official told Pentagon reporters.
   He ticked off main topics to be discussed in Warsaw in preparation for Prague: new NATO membership; new relationships, such as with Russia and Ukraine; and new NATO capabilities.
   Rumsfeld is expected to propose creating a NATO Response Force during the Prague summit, the official said. That new force would provide NATO the capability to deploy perhaps a brigade-sized unit on short notice to perform either low- or high-intensity military missions. He said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America and new defense realities of the 21st century sparked the idea of having such a force. More