U.S. President George W. Bush will propose offering five countries an expanded relationship with NATO at the summit of the military alliance next week in Riga, Latvia, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said on Tuesday.

"These five countries -- at least the three Asian countries, I should say, Australia, Japan and South Korea -- do not seek NATO membership. But we seek a partnership with them so that we can train more intensively, from a military point of view, and grow closer to them because we are deployed with them," Burns said.

The other two are Sweden and Finland, Burns said.

"This will be a priority issue for the United States at this summit, and we believe NATO will agree to this program of global partnerships," Burns said.

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said no new membership invitations would be issued at the summit in Riga that will be attended by U.S. President George W. Bush and leaders of the other NATO nations.

"This is not going to be an expansion summit. NATO is not going to be making invitations," Fried said.

NATO currently has a total of 26 member states.

Editor: Donald