Macedonia Walks Out of Nato Talks

The tiny state of Macedonia today said it would walk out of the Nato summit after Greece blocked its bid for membership of the military alliance.

Officials from the former Yugoslav republic decided to leave the conference â€" taking place in Bucharest, Romania - when Nato declined to invite it to join the 26-member bloc.

The Macedonian foreign minister, Antonio Milosovski, told reporters that 90% of his people strongly supported membership. He said officials needed to show solidarity.

"The Macedonian delegation will leave the summit today," he told a news conference on the second day of the three-day meeting. "It is necessary to be with our people. This is a difficult time for a small nation."

Macedonia, which broke from Yugoslavia during the Balkans crisis in 1991, has the same name as Greece's most northerly province.

Athens insists it must call itself New or Upper Macedonia amid Greek fears that its neighbor has territorial ambitions for northern Greece.

Nato is keen to bring in Macedonia, along with Croatia and Albania, as a way of ensuring stability in the Balkans.

Croatia and Albania present no problems, but Macedonia's Nato aspirations have become entangled in its acrimonious dispute with Greece.

Nato says Macedonia can join once that argument has been resolved.

There was also a rebuff for George Bush as Nato delayed membership plans for Ukraine and Georgia in the face of French and German opposition.

The organization kicked the issue into touch by agreeing to review the former Soviet republics' progress in December.

Bush has been lobbying hard for Nato to offer membership action plans to Ukraine and Georgia â€" the last step before full membership.

The US president has pressed for the move despite Russian warnings that it would undermine European security.

"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," Bush said.

Russia - already at loggerheads with Washington over US plans for placing parts of a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic - strongly opposes the expansion of a western military alliance right up to its borders.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, are both strongly pro-US but have counseled patience in order not to provoke Moscow. Germany depends heavily on Russia for energy.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato secretary general, said Nato membership for Ukraine and Georgia remained a goal.

"We agree today that these countries will become member nations," he told a news conference after the failure to include Ukraine and Georgia in the membership action plan.

Nato's final communiqué is expected to offer a membership plan to the countries later, encouraging them to continue political and military reforms in preparation for joining.

The Ukrainian and Georgian governments are expected to see the decision as a boost for pro-Russian forces in their countries, although Ukrainian public opinion is strongly against Nato membership.

The Georgian foreign minister, David Bakradze, said a no to Georgia would "show those people in the Kremlin" who think they can influence Nato "by a policy of blackmail, by arrogance and aggression" that they had achieved "a victory".

Nato's decision marks a diplomatic success for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Putin is due to join the Nato talks tomorrow - his last such meeting before stepping down in May.