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Nato mulls Balkan membership bids Name row threatens Nato talks
(about 2 hours later)
Nato foreign ministers have begun discussions on whether to invite three Balkan states - Albania, Croatia and Macedonia - to join the alliance. A dispute over the name of Macedonia could derail Nato plans to invite three Balkan states to join the alliance.
All 26 members of the alliance have to agree before a formal decision can be made at a summit next month. Nato foreign ministers have begun discussing whether Albania, Croatia and the former Yugoslav republic should be asked to become members next month.
Greece has threatened to block Macedonia's bid, in a long-standing row over the country's name. All 26 members of the alliance have to agree, but Greece has threatened to block Macedonia's bid because of the northern Greek region of the same name.
Nato is also expected to offer closer ties to Serbia despite the anti-Western backlash there over Kosovo. A UN envoy is currently trying to find a compromise for both countries.
Afghan dilemma A lot depends on the question of whether these two states are going to be able to come closer together in the coming weeks Frank-Walter SteinmeierGerman Foreign Minister
With less than four weeks to go before the summit in Bucharest, there is broad support within the alliance to invite Croatia, Albania and Macedonia, the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels says. Greece says the name implies a territorial claim on the region, which Macedonia denies.
All three are backed by Washington, and Nato diplomats say they have stepped up political and military reforms. Nato members are keen to extend the alliance into the Balkans, to stabilise the region after Kosovo's 17 February declaration of independence.
But Greece has said it will veto Macedonia's bid in the dispute over the former Yugoslav republic. All three countries are backed by Washington and Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said they had worked hard on political and military reforms.
Athens says it implies a territorial claim over a northern Greek province also called Macedonia. In the long run, he said, the only recipe for Balkan stability was their integration in Nato and the EU.
Requests by Ukraine and Georgia to get a road map for eventual membership are proving even more divisive, our correspondent says. "I would like all three countries to join," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters.
She says that while former Communist countries support them, other Nato members are looking for ways to send a positive signal to the two former Soviet republics without worsening relations with Russia, which are at their lowest point since the Cold War. "A lot depends on the question of whether these two states are going to be able to come closer together in the coming weeks."
An invitation would be made at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April.
The BBC's correspondent at the meeting in Brussels, Oana Lungescu, said unless Macedonia agreed to change its name by early April, Greece might veto its membership and cast an embarrassing shadow over its biggest ever summit.
Russian dilemma
Nato is also expected to offer closer ties to Serbia, despite the anti-Western backlash there over Kosovo.
Requests by Ukraine and Georgia to get a road map for eventual membership are also proving divisive.
Our correspondent says that while former communist countries support them, other Nato members are looking for ways to send a positive signal to the two former Soviet republics without worsening relations with Russia, which are at their lowest point since the Cold War.
Afghanistan is also on the agenda of the talks in Brussels, but a Nato spokesman said no decisions were expected on committing more troops to what is already the alliance's biggest and most challenging mission.Afghanistan is also on the agenda of the talks in Brussels, but a Nato spokesman said no decisions were expected on committing more troops to what is already the alliance's biggest and most challenging mission.
Foreign ministers will work instead on a strategic statement explaining why Afghanistan is key to the fight against global terrorism, and how Nato plans to improve co-ordination with other international organisations to build up the country.Foreign ministers will work instead on a strategic statement explaining why Afghanistan is key to the fight against global terrorism, and how Nato plans to improve co-ordination with other international organisations to build up the country.