Speaking to reporters travelling with her to Brussels, Rice underlined that NATO "is a consensus organisation", and that its 26 member nations must decide unanimously when it comes to admitting new partners.

"I am obviously going to have extensive discussions with my colleagues about each of these issues," she said, on the eve of an informal meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) foreign ministers here.

"The US in principle has always said that NATO is a performance based organisation and therefore when countries are not ready for these various stages, that NATO has to have an open door to them," she said.

A senior NATO official said Wednesday that the transatlantic military alliance had still not reached a consensus on whether to invite Georgia and Ukraine to join a Membership Action Plan (MAP) at a summit next month.

The plans are designed to help aspiring countries meet NATO standards and prepare them for possible membership.

"I would say right now in all fairness there is no consensus on that," Robert Simmons, NATO's special envoy for the Caucasus and Central Asia, said at a press conference in Moscow, referring to Georgia's bid to join.

Talking about Ukraine's plans to join, Simmons said: "This requires a consensus in the alliance, and for the moment I would say that consensus doesn't exist."

Expectations are high among the leaders of Georgia and Ukraine, two former Soviet republics neighbouring Russia, that their bids will get a boost at a NATO summit on April 2-4 in Bucharest, Romania.

Russia has reacted angrily to the NATO ambitions of its ex-Soviet allies, with Russian officials saying their country is being surrounded. NATO has said Russia will have no veto on membership for Georgia and Ukraine.

Ukraine's leaders have requested MAP status at NATO, but public opinion is largely against the move.

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