A formal decision has not been taken, but a request by Kiev for Yushchenko to attend the February 22 summit was favourably seen by delegations of the military alliance's 26 member states.

"Ukraine's ambassador told the (NATO) secretary general that Yushchenko would like to attend the summit," said one source, adding that the reply should be "positive."

Bush will attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit at the start of his first foreign trip since the start of his second term in the White House, in a bid to turn a new chapter with Europe after the 2003 Iraq war.

The NATO alliance was plunged into its deepest ever crisis by the conflict, which pitted the United States and its supporters against a group of anti-war countries led by France and Germany.

The NATO source said Yushchenko wasn't looking for any substantive decisions during the Brussels meeting, but wanted a first personal contact with the heads of state including President Bush.

In Kiev a spokesman for Yushchenko said he was unable to confirm the trip "for the moment."

Pro-Western Yushchenko finally took office last month after a two-month political crisis in his ex-Soviet country following contested polls in November.

Although Ukraine is a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program which develops closer links with many former Soviet republics, relations between the alliance and outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma were often chilly.

NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who travelled to Kiev for Yushchenko's January 23 inauguration, has said the West's former Cold War military bloc wants to deepen ties with the former Soviet country.

On the same day as the NATO summit President Bush is also to attend a summit with leaders of the European Union (EU), which was deeply divided over the 2003 US-led war on Iraq.

The EU has also vowed to deepen ties with Kiev, notably offering to boost trade ties and ease visa requirements, but has made it clear that talks of EU membership is premature.

US Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated Washington's support for Yushchenko last month, when the two men met on the sidelines of ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland.

"President Yushchenko is an ally of the cause of freedom and President (George W.) Bush and the US stand with him," he said in a joint press conference in Krakow, Poland.

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