NATO's chief says the alliance member countries have approved a new interim quick-reaction military force to protect themselves from Russia or other threats.

The initial unit, to be up and running in early 2015, is designed to be supplanted later by a permanent force, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

He spoke to reporters after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

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The ministers also approved maintaining measures designed to reassure NATO countries nearest Russia, Stoltenberg said. Such measures include stepped-up air patrols over the Baltic Sea and rotating NATO military units in and out of countries like Poland and the Baltic republics.

"We are protecting our allies and supporting our partners," Stoltenberg said in announcing the decisions made by the foreign ministers.

The ministers, meeting in Brussels, spoke with their Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin, via a video hookup with Kiev on Tuesday. They criticized Russia's reported military buildup in Crimea and Kremlin plans for a military buildup in the Black Sea.

In a statement, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the other ministers said Russia's actions "undermine the security of Ukraine and have serious implications for the stability and security of the entire Euro-Atlantic area."

To help finance the reform and modernization of Ukraine's military, NATO has announced the creation of so-called trust funds. The ministers said Tuesday the funds are now operational for logistics, cyber-defence, rehabilitation of wounded soldiers and other uses.

The meeting was NATO's most important gathering since President Barack Obama and other alliance heads of state and government met in Wales 90 days earlier.

Stoltenberg said the foreign ministers are expected to take key decisions in several areas, including maintaining a "continuous NATO presence" in front-line alliance member states near Russia, and creation of an interim rapid-reaction force to come to the assistance of NATO nations under direct threat from Russia or elsewhere.

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The ministers also are expected to authorize the launch of an advisory mission in Afghanistan on Jan. 1, when NATO-led combat operations there are scheduled to end.