The United States is expected to publicly announce early next month that it favors inviting seven of the nine NATO aspirant countries to join the alliance.
Washington is prepared to support the candidacies of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria but will not back Macedonia or Albania for membership, US officials said.
The announcement will likely come during the first week of next month ahead of the November NATO summit in Prague at which the invitations are to be formally made, they said.
An official described Macedonia and Albania as the "weakest links" in the aspirant pool but said the two countries would be asked to continue informal relationships with the alliance with an eye toward possible future NATO membership.
"They're just not prepared," he said.
NATO operates on a consensus basis but the US wields heavy influence in the alliance and its position will likely carry great weight.
The timing of the expected US announcement is linked not only to the Prague summit, but also to the end of a tour by NATO officials to the aspirant countries that is now underway.
At the conclusion of that tour, NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson and Mr Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador NATO, are to visit Washington for a last round of political consultations about enlargement, the officials said.
Washington, along with other major players in the 19-member alliance, has been coy on which countries they will support for membership, with most officials deferring to US President George W. Bush's line that the US supports a "robust expansion" of NATO.
AFP