NATO's Eastern Applicants Back "War on Terrorism"

Friday October 5 10:48 AM ET

NATO's Eastern Applicants Back 'War on Terrorism'

By Elisaveta Konstantinova

SOFIA (Reuters) - Ten former communist nations queuing to join NATO gave full backing on Friday to the U.S. ``war on terrorism'' after last month's suicide attacks.

``We consider these attacks to be an attack on all of us,'' the presidents of Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia and Albania said in a joint declaration after talks in Sofia.

``Our governments will fully support the war against terrorism,'' they said, echoing earlier statements of solidarity by NATO's 19 member countries.

In a message to the summit, President Bush praised the candidate countries' support, saying it ``sends a powerful message against the tyranny of terror.''

All 10 ex-communist countries except Croatia are candidates for NATO membership.

Describing Afghanistan as a ``black hole'' and a safe haven for terrorists, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson urged better cooperation among the international coalition being formed in the wake of the attacks on the United States.

The alliance has blamed Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and his Afghan-based al-Qaeda network for the attacks.

``We clearly must do better at finding and sharing reliable intelligence on terrorists. We must trace their money and freeze it. We must deny them safe havens anywhere in the world. And, where necessary, we must use force to prevent them from causing further loss of innocent life,'' Robertson said.

He insisted the attacks had ``neither derailed the (NATO) enlargement process nor slammed NATO's door shut.''

``The logic of enlargement remains as compelling today as it was on September 10,'' he said, adding that applicants must still meet the alliance's military and political standards before being allowed to join.

NATO leaders are due to decide on the alliance's next expansion at a summit in Prague late next year. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999.

``The enlargement process will not be held hostage by any terrorism or any individual terrorists. We are not going to be deflected,'' Robertson later told a news conference.

He said important decisions would be taken both at Prague and in the run-up to that meeting, so all candidate states must ''keep up the momentum.''

In his message, Bush gave strong U.S. backing to the enlargement drive, saying: ``The United States will be prepared to make concrete historic decisions...to do as much as we can to complete the vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace.