(Adds de Hoop Scheffer, Lavrov, Ischinger)
By Mark John and Paul Taylor
BUCHAREST, April 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush
set the stage for a clash at his final NATO summit on Wednesday
by pressing reluctant west European allies to set former Soviet
republics Georgia and Ukraine on a path to membership.
He also urged his allies to follow the example of France,
Poland and host nation Romania in providing extra troops for
NATO's battle against Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan.
"If we do not defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan, we will
face them on our soil," Bush said in a speech in Bucharest
before leaders of the 26-nation defence alliance were to open a
three-day summit in the Romanian capital.
He said the West should reward democratic revolutions in
Ukraine and Georgia by giving both countries the prospect of
joining NATO, although Russia has opposed this.
"My country's position is clear -- NATO should welcome
Georgia and Ukraine into the Membership Action Plan," he said,
referring to a programme which is a gateway to membership.
France and Germany, backed by several smaller countries,
have said Ukraine and Georgia no not meet NATO's criteria and
the decision would be an unnecessary provocation to Moscow just
before President-elect Dmitry Medvedev takes office.
At stake is whether NATO pushes its European borders right
up to the frontiers of Russia, with the exception of Belarus, or
leaves a strategic buffer zone as the Kremlin wishes.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer left the scope,
timing and nature of planned expansion vague in a speech to
youth leaders from alliance countries.
"I expect the summit will open NATO's doors to several new
members from southeast Europe," he said, adding the alliance
would also strengthen ties with other states in the Balkans and
the Euro-Atlantic area, including Ukraine and Georgia.
PRAGMATIC REACTION
Bush sought to soothe Russian anger over what Moscow sees as
NATO's attempt to encroach on its sphere of influence.
"The Cold War is over. Russia is not our enemy. We are
looking to a new security relationship with Russia," Bush said.
Looking ahead to a weekend summit with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, Bush said there could be an unprecedented level
of strategic cooperation on missile defence and arms control.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russia's lower house of
parliament that Moscow would respond to any further NATO
expansion by strengthening its defences and economic might, but
gave no details.
"NATO expansion will not be left without a response,"
ITAR-TASS news agency quoted him as saying. "But we will react
pragmatically."
NATO summits are usually carefully choreographed to showcase
pre-cooked agreements but the main enlargement decisions this
time are to be agreed at an opening dinner, when Bush meets the
French, German and other leaders.
"Almost all of the files are not locked away in the filing
cabinet as they have been in past summits," a NATO diplomat
said, referring to the request for more troops in Afghanistan as
well as the enlargement issues.
NATO decisions require unanimity, so Washington will
probably have to settle for a programme of closer cooperation
with Ukraine and Georgia and at most a commitment to review the
issue at next year's 60th anniversary summit.
APPEASEMENT DENIAL
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was quoted
by a German newspaper as saying NATO should not strain ties with
Moscow beyond "the limit of the manageable" by supporting their
request for a Membership Action Plan (MAP).
A senior German diplomat, Wolfgang Ischinger, rejected
accusations by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili that
Berlin's attitude was tantamount to appeasement of the Kremlin.
"That would be the wrongest possible misreading of our
approach," he told a Bucharest conference on NATO issues.
The real issue is how hard the United States will try to
push for France and Germany to make a commitment to give Ukraine
and Georgia a MAP in 2009, a senior NATO diplomat said.
Another uncertain decision facing the leaders was over
Macedonia's candidacy for NATO membership. Greece has threatened
to veto Skopje's entry over an unresolved dispute about the
former Yugoslav republic's name.
Bush made clear Washington wanted Macedonia, along with
Croatia and Albania, to be invited to join this week. But Greek
Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni said in Athens there was no time
for a last-minute compromise.
"We have said that no solution means no invitation," she
told reporters.
Diplomats said if Athens did not yield, leaders might try to
issue a conditional invitation to Skopje, to be ratified once
the name dispute was settled.
Some fear Macedonia's exclusion would plunge it into a new
political crisis, with repercussions for a region already on
tenterhooks over Kosovo's Feb. 17 secession from Serbia.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Matt Spetalnick,
Justyna Pawlak, David Brunnstrom and Randall Palmer in Bucharest
and Francois Murphy in Paris; Editing by Timothy Heritage)
