US President George W Bush has repeated his call for Nato to expand eastwards. Speaking in Romania ahead of Nato’s summit in Bucharest, he said the former Soviet states of Ukraine and Georgia should be offered paths to membership.

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on April 2 that the government would consider the Russian State Duma’s resolution on the recognition of independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with the connection to the situation in Kosovo.

Former Chairman of the NATO Military Commitee Harald Kujat is against the admission of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. According to German general, membership of Ukraine and Georgia in the alliance conflicts with the interests of NATO and the candidates themselves.

 NATO decided Thursday not to put Georgia and Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement Russian opposition, but the alliance pledged that the strategically important Black Sea nations will become members one day.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – The U.N. war crimes tribunal acquitted Kosovo’s former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj on Thursday of charges of torturing and murdering Serbs during the 1998-99 war.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Just how many troops does NATO need in Afghanistan? Despite repeated calls for more forces to be sent to fight Taliban insurgents, alliance leaders — meeting on Thursday at a summit in Bucharest — have been reluctant or unable to give a consistent figure for how many …

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to focus on areas of agreement rather than discord at talks with NATO leaders on Friday, in efforts to keep ties with the West on a relatively even keel before he steps down.

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.