BRUSSELS, November 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The headline goal of the upcoming Prague summit, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, November 21-22, has long been NATO expansion.

A total of nine ex-communist countries are formal candidates to join NATO. Seven of them are expected to receive membership invitations at this week's Prague summit, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Sunday, November 17.

At least one other country is expected to be approved as a new candidate at the summit, which will likely approve NATO’s biggest expansion since it was founded in 1949.

NATO officials are refusing to confirm the list of countries expected to receive the green light in Prague, saying this is the "right and privilege" of heads of state and government.

But barring major surprises, diplomats make clear that the seven expected to be invited are: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria.

"I see no impediment as to why the obvious runners won't be invited," said one diplomat, adding: "It will be a very substantial enlargement."

Albania and Macedonia are not expected to be invited, while Croatia is expected formally to become a candidate at the summit in the Czech capital.

NATO repeatedly stresses its "open-door policy" for those left out in this next phase of expansion.

"For those not invited we have to offer the prospect of membership," said one diplomat.

The Czech Republic, the first ex-communist country to host a NATO summit, was among three former Soviet-bloc nations which joined the Alliance in 1999. The others were Hungary and Poland.

NATO, which some diplomats say has been somewhat disappointed at the integration efforts of the three who joined three years ago, is insisting it will maintain pressure on the new invitees.

"The pressure will be maintained after Prague," said NATO Secretary General George Robertson.

Once the list of new members-in-waiting is agreed, they should in principle sign protocols of membership in the spring of 2003, triggering ratification process by all members states.

The whole process will likely take 18 months, culminating in the spring or early summer of 2004 when NATO is planning to hold its next summit.

NATO was born from the Washington Treaty of 1949 in response to the growing Soviet threat after World War II.

Over the next five decades it expanded four times, growing from its original 12 members to the current 19.

The founding members were: Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States.

NATO, which employs over 3,000 staff at its Brussels headquarters, has undertaken a number of missions in the war-torn Balkans in recent years.

These include heading a peacekeeping force in Bosnia-Hercegovina, which was launched in 1995 and continues as SFOR.

Its most high-profile military role of recent years was its bombing campaign over Kosovo in spring 1999, after which it deployed the KFOR peacekeeping mission.

Last year it spearheaded mission Essential Harvest in the former Republic of Macedonia, the mandate for which ends in December.

The Alliance works by consensus, a principle which critics say hobbles its ability to make decisions.