Washington: The US Senate on May 8 unanimously approved to bring seven more nations of the former Soviet bloc into North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as lawmakers stressed the need to expand support for the global war against terrorism.

The senate voted 96 to zero to admit Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in the NATO.

All 19 NATO members must approve the accession, but no problems are expected in that regard.

The legislatures of all other 18 NATO member states must also ratify membership of the seven before they can join the alliance, and only a handful have done so thus far.

Foreign Ministers from the seven nations were also present in the Senate chamber to witness the voting.

Apart from providing new bases for missions worldwide, the new members would raise the number of troops in the alliance by 200,000.

Except for Slovenia, the new members provided the US significant political and logistical support during the Iraq war.

"These countries already make significant contributions that strengthen the transatlantic relationship… In fact, they've acted as better allies than some of the members that are currently in NATO," said Ohio Senator George Voinovich yesterday.

The lawmakers also stressed on the need to broaden the transatlantic military alliance to include new partners in the war against global terrorism.

The Senators also criticised allies like France and Germany for creating obstructions during Iraq war.

PTI