France will not support bids by the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine to become members of NATO, putting it at odds with the United States, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said yesterday.

"France will not give its green light to the entry of Ukraine and Georgia," Fillon told France Inter radio.

"France has an opinion which is different from that of the United States on this question."

NATO leaders hold a summit later this week in Romania where Georgia and Ukraine hope to obtain a Membership Action Plan (MAP), a road map to eventual entry already secured by Croatia, Macedonia and Albania.

President George W. Bush arrived in Ukraine late on Monday ahead of the summit, and officials accompanying him remained optimistic that the alliance could extend the plan to both countries at the summit.

"We think it's very, very, very important (for) Georgia and Ukraine, that we welcome their aspirations to be part of NATO, that we have an active engagement in helping them move in that direction," National Security Council advisor Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"And the president has made clear we think the best way to do that is to offer MAP at Bucharest and that's what the president is pushing hard for."

However, French officials are reluctant to embrace Ukraine and Georgia because of fierce Russian opposition to their NATO membership drive.

"We are opposed to the entry of Georgia and Ukraine because we think it is not the right response to the balance of power in Europe and between Europe and Russia, and we want to have a dialogue on this subject with Russia," Fillon said.

"That's what the president of the Republic will say in Bucharest tomorrow," he added.

France's stance would put it on a conflicting course with US.

US President George W. Bush yesterday vowed to press for Ukraine and Georgia to be allowed to start the process of joining NATO despite resistance from Russia and skepticism from the alliance's European members.

Bush, in Kiev on his way to his farewell NATO summit in Romania, said Moscow had no right to veto bids by the two ex-Soviet states. There was no link between their ambitions and a planned US missile defense system in Europe, he added.

Washington has long lobbied for Ukraine and Georgia to be granted MAP at the Bucharest summit.

Russia strongly opposes the bids on grounds that NATO is intruding on its sphere of influence.

Bush underscored his resolve to back the applications.

"Your nation has made a bold decision, and the United States strongly supports your request," Bush told a news conference alongside Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

"In Bucharest this week, I will continue to make America's position clear. We support MAP for Ukraine and Georgia. Helping Ukraine move towards NATO membership is in the interest of every member in the alliance and will help advance security and freedom in this region and around the world."

NATO states had told Bush that "Russia will not have a veto over what happens next in Bucharest and I take their word for it. And that's the right policy to have".

He dismissed as a "misperception" any trade-off - shelving support for MAP bids to win agreement to deploy interceptor rockets and a radar in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Bush said he had made that clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He hoped proposals to make the missile defense system more transparent would yield progress at his weekend meeting with Putin at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Yushchenko said Ukraine had made a clear choice on NATO.

"I can see no other way forward for our nation," he said. "You will forgive me, but I would not like to see the key, fundamental principle of the Alliance's activity, open doors, to be replaced by a veto for a country which is not even a member."

But Ukraine's bid to secure a MAP, the first stage in the long process of joining NATO, faces low public support at home as well as resistance in Russia and western Europe.

For many Ukrainians, joining NATO is not a priority, only 30 percent of respondents in the ex-Soviet state support it.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/02/2008 page12)