Polish, Baltic presidents urge open door at NATO

VILNIUS, Nov 6 (Reuters) The presidents of Poland and the three Baltic states today called on NATO to continue expanding, saying the military alliance should not close its doors to aspiring ex-Soviet states.

The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia -- meeting in Vilnius -- discussed the NATO heads of state summit to be held in Riga on November 28-29. US President George W Bush will be among the participants.

In a joint communique the east European leaders said NATO should have an open door policy to new members.

Some NATO members have balked at the continued expansion of the alliance to include such aspirant members as Ukraine.

In late September, the United States told Ukraine it would back an application by the former Soviet republic to join NATO, even though the country's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich had put membership of the alliance on hold.

The communique said the four presidents welcomed intensified dialogue with Georgia and pledged to support modernisation of Ukraine's defence and security sectors.

''The Riga summit will not be an enlargement summit -- no announcements will be made to that effect -- but all four countries represented here today feel very strongly that the Riga summit should give signs of encouragement,'' said Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

''We have common views on the priorities NATO is facing and we intend to speak with a common voice at the debates,'' she added.

Washington wants NATO to expand its activities.

On October 30 the United States, looking to the Riga summit, set out an ambitious agenda for transforming NATO into a global security organisation.

US NATO ambassador Victoria Nulund said the 26-nation alliance had gone beyond debates about whether to act outside its Euro-Atlantic area, deploying forces on four continents in the last 18 months, including in Afghanistan.

NATO is already performing missions in practice for which it has yet to adopt its theory, she said.

Diplomats have said France is most reticent about accepting a global role for the US-led alliance. Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain also had reservations, they said.

Reuters AKJ GC2126