The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Bucharest

President Bush renewed urgent calls Wednesday for NATO nations to allow Ukraine and Georgia to start the admission process over Russian objections and to counter Osama bin Laden's latest threats to Europe by stepping up their efforts in Afghanistan. Hoping to set the stage for a summit of leaders from the trans-Atlantic alliance here this week, Bush also said that he remained committed to building a U.S. missile defense system in Europe fiercely opposed by Moscow and that the United States would not endanger Iraq with precipitous U.S. troop withdrawals. On the eve of his last NATO summit, Bush lobbied fellow leaders on behalf of NATO expansion. He argued that the alliance should be open to all European democracies, for now the former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia but also others in the future. Arguing against the misgivings from France and Germany that opening the process to Ukraine and Georgia could overly harm relations with Moscow, a needed energy supplier, Bush said a larger NATO is not a threat to Russia.

"We must make clear that NATO welcomes the aspirations of Georgia and Ukraine for membership in NATO and offers them a clear path forward toward that goal," the president said. "NATO membership must remain open to all of Europe's democracies that seek it, and are ready to share in the responsibilities of NATO membership."

The half-hour speech allowed Bush to forcefully and unapologetically make his case on all of his top NATO agenda items, getting the spotlight in the summit host city virtually to himself before the meetings get under way Wednesday night. He addressed about 500 local political and business leaders in a marble hall distinctive for its two glass-topped domes. Bush also was seeing NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer before the summit's official launch at a Cotroceni Palace dinner.