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Bush pushes for NATO membership for Ukraine, Georgia

US President George W. Bush said yesterday that Washington "strongly supports" Ukraine's bid to join NATO, speaking after talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

"Ukraine now seeks to deepen its cooperation with the NATO alliance through a membership action plan. Ukraine has made a bold decision and the United States strongly supports your request," Bush said at a joint press conference with Yushchenko.

Washington has long lobbied for Ukraine and Georgia to be granted Membership Action Plans (MAP) at the Bucharest summit. MAP is a key step toward membership in the alliance.

Russia has strongly opposed the bids on grounds that the alliance was intruding on its sphere of influence. And as Bush began talks with Ukraine's pro-Western president, France said it would oppose the bid by the two former Soviet states.

The US president said his administration backed MAP for Ukraine and another ex-Soviet republic, Georgia.

"My position is absolutely solid: Ukraine and Georgia should be given MAP," Bush said.

He said he had made that clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bush also expressed hope progress could be made on the missile defense issue when he meets Putin over the weekend at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, although Putin will be attending the NATO summit as a guest.

"I'm hopeful we can have some breakthroughs," he said. "Let's see."

Ukraine's aspirations to secure a MAP face lack of public support at home in addition to resistance in Russia and western Europe.

In central Kiev, a few hundred protesters defied a court ban and shouted anti-NATO slogans in Independence Square -- focal point of the 2004 pro-Western "Orange Revolution" protests that swept Yushchenko to power. A few thousand protesters had massed in the square ahead of Bush's arrival on Monday.

For many Ukrainians, joining NATO is not a priority -- only 30 percent of respondents in the ex-Soviet state support it.

But French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, interviewed on a radio program, said: "France will not give its green light to the entry of Ukraine and Georgia."

"We are opposed to the entry of Georgia and Ukraine because we think it is not the right response to the balance of power in Europe and between Europe and Russia, and we want to have a dialogue on this subject with Russia," Fillon said.

France and Germany have resisted granting a MAP on the grounds that both states have yet to achieve political stability and that the process would unnecessarily antagonize Russia.
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