MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday the entry of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO would be a “huge strategic mistake” after alliance leaders pledged to offer them membership one day.

MINSK (Reuters) – Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday it was only a matter of time before NATO took in Ukraine and Georgia, and called for joint efforts with Russia to counter the alliance’s expansion.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Macedonia announced it was leaving a NATO summit early on Thursday after Greece prevented alliance leaders from inviting it into the military pact because of a row over its name.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A delay in inviting Macedonia to join NATO could encourage radicals and fuel instability in the Balkans, Albania’s prime minister said, urging compromise to allow a last-minute deal at an alliance summit on Wednesday.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – President George W. Bush set the stage for a clash at his final NATO summit on Wednesday by pressing reluctant west European allies to set former Soviet republics Georgia and Ukraine on a path to membership.

MINSK (Reuters) – The former Soviet republic of Belarus, subject to Western sanctions over its human rights record, said on Wednesday it was staying away from a NATO summit in Bucharest because of restrictions on who could attend.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia would respond pragmatically to any further NATO expansion by strengthening its defenses and economic might, Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – President George W. Bush urged NATO allies on Wednesday to send more troops to Afghanistan, but France distanced itself from expectations in the alliance that it could deploy 1,000 extra soldiers.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli court-martial charged a military tracker from the Jewish state’s Arab minority on Monday with spying for Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

PRISTINA (Reuters) – Serbia said on Monday it would conduct its May elections in the former Kosovo province as well, in a fresh challenge to the newly independent state and its international overseers.