Turkey and Greece have agreed to cancel rival military exercises that were to have been held next week on their respective national days, NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday. "This is a very welcome step," Stoltenberg said after a videoconference of NATO defence ministers, including Greece's Nikos Panagiotopoulos and Turkey's Hulusi Akar. Greece had been expected to conduct exercises on Wednesday October 28, its Oxi Day holiday, and Turkey on Thursday, celebrated there as Republic Day. dc/arp/txw