ROMANIA:AS SECRET service agents swarm into Romania to prepare for the attendance of dozens of world leaders at next week's Nato summit, the political pace is also quickening as countries seek to resolve a host of vital issues before the gathering in Bucharest.
Romania has raised its terrorism alert level and put almost its entire security services on standby, as well as summoning more than 1,000 policeman from around the country to direct Bucharest's disrupted traffic.
Police have also rounded up the city's notorious packs of stray dogs from the areas where at least 24 heads of state and 26 prime ministers will meet.
A section of the Danube river will be closed for a time next Wednesday, when host president Traian Basescu meets US counterpart George Bush at a resort on the Black Sea, where the waters will be guarded by several Romanian warships and some 2,000 navy staff.
In what is being seen as a crucial showcase event for the new EU and Nato member state, both of Bucharest's airports were to be closed to regular flights during the April 2nd-4th summit, before a last-minute decision to leave one of them open.
While locals brace themselves for inevitable travel chaos next week, Romanian officials insist that the number of leaders in attendance and the importance of the matters to be discussed make the summit the major political meeting of the year.
Croatia, Albania and Macedonia all hope to be invited to join the 26-nation bloc, and Georgia and Ukraine are pressing Nato members to open the door to them, despite explicit warnings from Russia that such a move would undermine European security.
Poland and the Czech Republic, meanwhile, hope to accelerate talks with Washington on hosting elements of a US missile defence shield on their territories, despite threats from Russia that the countries could then become targets for Moscow's own rockets.
As well as the sensitive issues on the table, the Nato summit is notable for being the last one to be attended by Russia's president Vladimir Putin, who steps down in May, and Mr Bush, who will be replaced after the US election in November.
Mr Putin will be accompanied in Bucharest by his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, who reiterated his mentor's line this week that Nato membership for two of Moscow's Soviet-era dominions, Ukraine and Georgia, would destabilise the continent.
"A No in Bucharest will have very, very threatening and negative implications for conflict resolution," Georgian foreign minister David Bakradze responded yesterday.
"Appeasing Russia may bring a very, very short term positive effect, but in the mid-term or long term it will lead to worse results.
"It's even more than Georgia, it's even more than Ukraine, it's about Nato itself," he said.
Macedonia, meanwhile, is in last-ditch talks to persuade Greece to lift a veto on its own bid for membership.
The Athens government says it will not allow Macedonia to join the alliance unless it changes its name, which it shares with a northern Greek province.
