Republicans hit out at Nato expansion

Senior Republican senators on Thursday challenged the planned expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to include several former Soviet bloc countries, suggesting that Nato enlargement would leave the transatlantic alliance over-stretched and under-funded.
Republican opposition to Nato expansion represents a stark contrast to the Bush administration's strong support for enlargement to include potential new members such as the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
President George W. Bush is determined to extend Nato membership to "all of Europe's new democracies," declaring last year that the US would press ahead with Nato expansion at the Prague summit in November.
However, Republican senators suggested on Thursday that Nato enlargement would make the alliance cumbersome and would extend US military commitments to countries which had little support in Washington.