Putin arrived in the Romanian capital Bucharest for dinner and was to deliver an address on Friday with expectations high that he will invite the alliance to use Russia for transit to the war in Afghanistan.

The ex-KGB officer, who is due to move to the prime minister's post in May after eight years in the Kremlin, is the alliance's most bitter critic, particularly over eastward expansion into the former Soviet bloc.

He won a victory even before arriving Thursday when after months of Russian pressure NATO declined to give Membership Action Plan (MAP) status to ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine.

Putin had threatened to target nuclear missiles at Ukraine if the country joined the alliance and his angry rhetoric helped cause a public split in NATO.

The United States pushed for expansion, while western European powers France and Germany, which rely heavily on Russian oil and gas imports, warned against angering Moscow.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian lower house of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said France and Germany had confirmed "the importance of maintaining good relations with Russia."

Despite the row over expansion, Putin appeared keen to use his international swansong as president to help realign relations between Moscow and the West in time for his successor Dmitry Medvedev, who will be sworn in on May 7.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Putin was set to offer unprecedented cooperation by letting NATO use Russia for transit to the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Scheffer said: "We hope that tomorrow's meeting ... will have as one of the results the land transportation agreement of non-lethal goods for ISAF in Afghanistan."

Another major sticking point -- a planned US missile shield in central Europe -- was to be aired at a separate summit between Putin and US President George W. Bush in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi over the weekend.

In a sign of will to cooperate, NATO said Thursday it was "ready to explore the potential" for linking US, NATO and Russia's own missile defence systems in a unified network.

The push for reconciliation did not mean that the principal problems were entirely resolved.

NATO may have kept Georgia and Ukraine out of the MAP scheme for now, but strong US lobbying meant that the door remains wide open for the future.

"We agree today that these countries will become members of NATO," Scheffer said.

Georgia's minister for Euro-Atlantic integration, Giorgi Baramidze, described that statement as a "historic" breakthrough for his country, while Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko also hailed a "victory."

Russia's deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko warned of "a big strategic mistake" if NATO embraced Georgia and Ukraine, and "most serious consequences for common European security."

NATO also showed unity over Washington's plans for missile defence in the Czech Republic and Poland, which the Pentagon says is necessary to guard against Iran, but Moscow describes as an attack on its security.

The allied leaders stated their support for the US plan and particularly the "substantial contribution to the protection of allies ... to be provided by the planned deployment of European-based United States missile defence assets".

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