Planned NATO talks with Moscow should be focussed solely on Russia's "withdrawal" from Ukrainian soil, Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said Tuesday.

The minister was reacting to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg's announcement Monday that the transatlantic alliance is set to hold formal talks with Russia shortly after a summit in Warsaw this week.

"Russia is an occupying power, every day innocent people, civilians are killed by Russia soldiers who are the aggressors," Macierewicz said on Polish public television.

"We are not going to discuss defence plans with Russia. With Russia we can only discuss when and how they are going to withdraw from the occupied territories," in Ukraine, he added.

Russia's 2014 intervention in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea stung NATO out of its post-Cold War complacency and into a major revamp to boost its readiness and resources to meet a host of new security challenges

NATO leaders meeting in the Polish capital on Friday and Saturday will rubber-stamp the 28-nation alliance's biggest military buildup since the Cold War in response to the newly resurgent Russia.

Stoltenberg said Monday that "we are working with Russia to hold another meeting of the (NATO-Russia) council shortly after the summit," he added.

In April the NATO-Russia Council held its first meeting since June 2014 when relations were effectively frozen, and the talks ended in "profound disagreements" over Ukraine and other issues.

Russia has reacted angrily to NATO's plans for a military build-up, with President Vladimir Putin saying the alliance is provoking an arms race "frenzy" in Europe and that Moscow would respond.

Russia bitterly opposes NATO's expansion into its Soviet-era satellites and has said it will create three new divisions in its own southwest region to meet what it has described as a dangerous military build-up along its borders

Macierewicz said Poland would continue to press its case because Ukraine "is our nearest neighbour to this aggressive empire".

Anti-IS plans unchanged after Baghdad bombing: Pentagon
Washington (AFP) July 5, 2016 - The horrifying bombing in Baghdad has not sparked changes to the US-led coalition's strategy against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

The Sunni extremist group has claimed responsibility for the suicide car bombing that ripped through Baghdad's Karrada district early Sunday as it was teeming with shoppers, killing more than 200 people.

As a result, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced stepped-up security measures in the capital.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the United States was "working closely" with Iraqi counterparts, but said he foresaw no changes to current levels of US involvement.

"This was clearly a devastating attack and a painful reminder of the lethal capabilities of ISIL," Cook said, using an acronym for the IS group.

"But it does not alter the strategy here, and that is to go after ISIL in Iraq, in Syria at an accelerated pace as aggressively as possible to try and limit their capabilities, their ability to carry out those kinds of attacks."

The IS group had urged supporters to strike during Ramadan, and the Baghdad bombing was one of a slew of recent attacks around the world, including in Turkey, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.

The attacks come at the same time coalition-backed local forces have made gains against the jihadists, including last month's recapture of Fallujah. Attention is now focused on the key IS city of Mosul in the north of Iraq.

"We're confident, working closely with the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi government, that we can continue to pressure ISIL on multiple fronts at the same time," Cook said.

"Tightening the noose around ISIL in Iraq will make it harder for them to carry out attacks in places like Baghdad, in places in other parts the world," he added.