President Bush was being abandoned by his closest allies last night as his appeal for Ukraine and Georgia to be earmarked for Nato membership met with opposition from Britain, France and Germany at the opening of the alliance summit in the Romanian capital.

Mr Bush threw down the gauntlet, during his last appearance at a Nato summit as US President, by urging that the two former Soviet republics join the alliance’s official action plan — the first step towards membership.

He had already made his position clear during a brief visit to Kiev before flying to Romania, but he emphasised the point in a keynote address at a conference in Bucharest yesterday morning, before the heads of government gathered for the summit.

American officials at the conference, run by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said that any failure to support the action plan process would be regarded as a concession to Moscow. President Putin has strongly opposed any move to draw Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance. President Saakashvili of Georgia has also said that failure by Nato to offer the prospect of membership would amount to appeasement of Russia.

Other Nato leaders, including Gordon Brown, thought that it was premature to put Ukraine and Georgia into the official membership system, even though it can take ten years before a formal invitation is made. The British judgment was that although there was full support for both Ukraine and Georgia, the question of “when” they joined should remain in the balance. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and President Sarkozy of France were of the same mind.

British officials said Mr Brown was convinced that President Bush would not win the argument for a membership action plan for Georgia and Ukraine, and felt that it was important to push for a compromise. Mr Bush met the German Chancellor last night and an agreed formula was worked out. The two prospective members are expected to be told that they could still join Nato and that a more formal approach would be made at the next summit, due to be held next year.

Earlier, senior British officials said that the Prime Minister was pressing for a compromise that would keep the alliance together, emphasising that the membership action plan was simply a process. They denied that Moscow had forged a split.

As the Nato leaders met over dinner last night at the Cotroceni Palace, the residence of the late President Ceausescu, to find a compromise on Ukraine and Georgia, they discovered other issues to upset their meal. Greece refused to back down from its total opposition to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia joining the alliance unless it agreed to change its name.

Today Albania and Croatia will be invited to join the alliance after successfully completing the membership action plan, increasing the total number of countries to 28. However, Macedonia’s membership has been postponed by Greece’s threatened veto. Athens objects to Macedonia’s name, which is the same as the northernmost province of Greece and the birthplace of Alexander the Great.

“For the moment, Greece is not in a position to agree to the entry of Macedonia and it will be Croatia and Albania first,” Miguel Ángel Moratinos, the Spanish Foreign Minister, told reporters last night.

Afghanistan was another key topic. Although every effort was being made to demonstrate a unified approach, there remained doubts over whether members would use the summit to offer more troops. Speaking to reporters on the flight to Bucharest, Mr Brown referred to the importance of Nato members “coming up to the plate” and sharing military and civilian responsibilities.

The forces

— 70,753 active personnel in Ukrainian Army

— 13,932 personnel in the navy

— 45,240 personnel in the air force

— £1.2bn Ukrainian defence budget for 2008

— 17,767 active personnel in Georgian Army

— 495 personnel in the navy

— 1,310 personnel in the air force

— £329m Georgian defence budget for 2007

Sources: IISS Military Balance 2008; opendemocracy.net

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