Russia's president-elect adopted a hard line today over the prospect of Nato membership for neighbouring Georgia and Ukraine.

Dmitri Medvedev said that expansion of the Western military alliance to include the two former Soviet republics would be "extremely troublesome" for European security.

Nato members are due to meet in Bucharest, Romania, on April 2-4 to consider whether to offer Membership Action Plans to Georgia and Ukraine. President Bush has said that he supports Georgia's desire for membership, and the US leader is also due to visit Ukraine next week on the eve of the Nato summit.

"We are not happy about the situation around Georgia and Ukraine," Mr Medvedev said. "We consider that it is extremely troublesome for the existing structure of European security... No state can be pleased about having representatives of a military bloc to which it does not belong coming close to its borders."

Nato's 26 members are divided on whether to extend invitations to Georgia and Ukraine at the summit. Georgia's Mikheil Saakashvili is seeking to pull his country out of Russia's orbit by joining Nato and the European Union.

Ukraine's pro-Western Orange revolution leadership of President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko are also determined to embrace the two organisations.

Russia fears that the expansion of Nato into Ukraine and Georgia could result in nuclear missiles being sited next to its border, upsetting the strategic balance. President Putin has already warned that Russia would be forced to aim target nuclear weapons at Ukraine if it joined Nato.

A Nato spokesman in Brussels acknowledged Russia had concerns and said that the alliance was willing to discuss them "in an open manner". But he added: "Nato's position is quite clear: democratic states in Europe have the right to aspire to, and work towards, Nato membership. It is their choice, not Nato's.

"Nato's door is open to them and these two democracies have indicated their desire to move closer to Nato."

Mr Medvedev, in an interview with the Financial Times, questioned how Ukraine could seek membership when many of its people in the Russian-speaking east were hostile to the idea.

"It is a thing that is hard to explain when the overwhelming majority of citizens of one of the states, like Ukraine for example, is categorically against joining Nato but the government of that state conducts a different policy," he said.

"It is precisely this that is a question of real democracy. At the minimum, in situations like this it is the done thing to hold a referendum."

Mr Medvedev, 42, will be sworn in as President on May 7. He said that he was willing to re-establish relations with Britain "to the full extent" after the chill in ties following the murder of the dissident Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006, but added that this had to be "without preconditions".

He also repeated allegations that the British Council was involved in espionage in Russia. The Council was forced to close regional offices in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in January after accusing Russian security services of harassing its staff.

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