WASHINGTON Ñ The United States has launched what officials term is the early stage of missile defense cooperation with NATO allies.

Pentagon officials said the administration has begun efforts with such countries as Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland and Spain. The campaign began earlier this year during visits to these countries by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior administration officials.

So far, the officials said, U.S. efforts have made the greatest progress with Israel. Both countries are pursuing two missile defense programs to defend against medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles as well as short-range rockets.

"We've had several trips over to Europe this year," Assistant Defense Secretary Torie Clarke said. "We've worked with the Israelis. We are talking to some of the others, but that's in the early stages."

In an interview over the weekend, Ms. Clarke said so far many of the U.S. allies now recognize the need for missile defense. She said some of the cooperation began before the administration's current drive to garner international support for missile defense. The current effort is meant to focus on research and development.

"We are talking to friends and allies about the kinds of areas in which we might cooperate, on different aspects of the program," Ms. Clarke said, "some of which actually started before this particular R&D program got in to full flourish, if you will."

The administration has requested more than $8 billion for missile defense for fiscal 2001. Much of that money is meant for R&D.

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