BERLIN, May 12: With barely two months to go before NATO leaders' crucial summit in Madrid, central European states are intensifying their diplomatic efforts for membership of the US backed security alliance.

While signs continued to emerge of a breakthrough next week in talks between NATO and Russia on extending the NATO umbrella to include former Soviet states, central European leaders have been showing up at western capitals in a last-ditch bid to shore up their countries' membership prospects.

Ahead of next week's meeting between NATO secretary general Javier Solana and Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said a deal was 98 per cent complete.

This is likely to clear the way for a final agreement later this month on an issue that has dogged Moscow's relations with the West since the end of the cold war more than seven years ago.

But while the 16 NATO leaders are expected to restrict the number of new members to three, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, when they gather in Madrid in July, this has not stopped the other nine former Soviet-led East Bloc states from increasing their lobbying efforts to be admitted to the Nato alliance.

The goal of Western integration, in part through NATO membership, has become the common issue running through the politics of former Moscow satellites with Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia stepping up their campaigns to be among the first wave of new members.

Although refusing to admit that its chances of early admission are slim, Bulgaria has already been pressing for special status within the NATO framework for countries that miss out in Madrid.

Solana met with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma this month amid signs from officials in Kiev that Ukraine would also like to join NATO and so avoid being caught between NATO and Moscow spheres of influence.

Since their new West-leaning government was elected last November, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea and his foreign minister Adrian Severin have waged an almost tireless campaign to win western support for their application to join NATO, seeing it as a stepping stone to eventual European Union membership.

In an attempt to drive forward its application, Romania has sought to gain western approval by settling border differences with Ukraine and rifts with Hungary over border disputes and minorities. Romania this week added Belgium to the growing list of countries that it has won over to its cause of NATO membership.

Even those considered favourites have been leaving nothing to chance with Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski recently visiting French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to ensure that Warsaw's membership application remains on course.

As the countdown to the July summit in Madrid gathers momentum, the countries jostling for NATO membership are also seeking to revamp their Soviet-era military complexes and to upgrade them to Western standards.

Poland's parliament is shortly to consider a radical Defence Ministry plan for slashing the size of the country's armed forces while introducing more flexibility and better equipment to allow the country to function as a full NATO member.

At the same time, Romania's Defence Ministry has announced plans to buy used fighter aircraft and transport planes from the US military to bring the country's Air Force closer to NATO standards.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.