US seeking "robust" NATO expansion at Prague summit

BUCHAREST - The United States is seeking "the most robust possible" enlargement of NATO at the alliance's summit in November, the State Department's number two official told a meeting of candidate-states Monday.

The prime ministers of 10 ex-communist countries were meeting in the Romanian capital Bucharest to discuss their NATO hopes ahead of the summit in Prague, set to decide on the Alliance's next wave of enlargement.

"The US looks forward to the most robust possible accession to the NATO membership at the Prague summit," said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage after meeting Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase.

"To that end I will be encouraging all of our friends here at the summit to exert their maximum efforts to sort of sprint towards the finish line, as we approach November," he added.

The leaders of the nine formal NATO candidates -- Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania -- have gathered in Bucharest for two days along with their Croatian countepart.

NATO, which last expanded in 1999 taking in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, will say nothing officially about which countries are likely to get the nod in Prague.

But diplomats say two options are gaining ground: either a five-country package of the three Baltic states plus Slo-Slo (Slovakia and Slovenia), or the same package plus Bulgaria and Romania.

"I will be traveling tomorrow to Brussels to brief the NAC (North Atlantic Council) on the discussions that we've had here and to make sure that in Brussels there is no mistake about the position of the US regarding the widest possible NATO membership," added Armitage.