Associated Press

NATO chief Lord Robertson warned eastern European nations hoping to secure membership in the alliance this year that they will have to pull their weight in the mutual defense pact. "There is no room for passengers," the NATO secretary-general said Wednesday. "If countries are going to join NATO they have to add value to NATO and not just benefit." Nine nations are hoping to receive an invitation to join NATO in November when the alliance holds a summit in the Czech capital Prague.

In his traditional New Year's greeting for the media, Robertson was coy about which countries would be allowed in. "A number between one and nine will receive invitations," he joked.

Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia are all seen as possible candidates for early NATO membership. Albania and Macedonia are outsiders.

NATO brought nations from behind the old Iron Curtain under its military umbrella for the first time in 1999, when Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined.