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Kiev: US President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he will work "as hard as I can" to help Ukraine join Nato and declared that Russia will not be able to veto former Soviet states joining the trans-Atlantic military alliance.
"Your nation has made a bold decision and the United States strongly supports your request," Bush told Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko after talks at the Presidential Secretariat in Kiev.
Bush praised Ukraine's democratic and military reforms, and noted that Ukraine "is the only non-Nato nation supporting every Nato mission." He suggested that embracing Ukraine was "in the interests of our organisation." Ukraine has sent troops to Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq.
The US president's brief visit to Kiev was meant to be a show of support for the country's Nato ambitions before the alliance's summit later this week in Bucharest, Romania.
Ukraine is hoping Nato members will vote to give it a so-called membership action plan (MAP), which outlines what a country needs to do to join and is a precursor to a membership invitation. Georgia also wants the same treatment.
Russia fiercely opposes the Western alliance's further eastward expansion and warns it is a threat to its security.
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