PRAGUE: The New NATO allies of eastern Europe are lining up behind Washington in offering to join a war against Iraq with or without a UN mandate.
More instinctively pro-American than the west Europeans, the new NATO members from Bulgaria in the south to Lithuania in the north are under US pressure to contribute to a war coalition, although militarily they have less to offer than the traditional NATO allies.
"Romania does not want to go to war against Iraq, but it will do what America says," said a Romanian newspaper this week.
A senior Czech official said that Romania and Bulgaria, invited to join NATO last November, are anxious that doubts about their willingness to participate in Iraq could delay US ratification of their membership.
In Washington last week, the Polish President, Mr Alexander Kwasniewski, pledged full support for the Americans, and the Polish government this week offered to contribute to coalition forces even without a UN mandate.
Mr Kwasniewski nurses ambitions to be the next NATO secretary general and needs American backing if he is to replace Mr George Robertson.
The Czechs have pledged to put their highly rated anti-chemical warfare unit, currently based in Kuwait, at the disposal of the Americans, although 27 of the 270 men currently in Kuwait embarrassed the government this week by voting to come home rather than join a war.
Opinion polls in the Czech Republic and Hungary show deep opposition to taking part in a war, but President Vaclav Havel in Prague, while nursing private doubts, has offered unequivocal backing to the Americans, and Hungary is allowing the US to train thousands of Iraqi exiles at a military base in the south of the country.
The Czechs have also agreed to allow hundreds of US troops to be stationed on their territory and made their airspace available. The Bulgarians are still awaiting an official US request for assistance, but are preparing an air base on the Black Sea coast.
Analysts say that Washington is urging the new NATO members in eastern Europe into the war camp in order to highlight the relative reluctance of the west Europeans to get involved.
US officials in eastern Europe deny that, arguing that the timing of Washington's requests for contributions is dictated purely by logistics and military planning considerations and by the need to escalate the credible threat of military force against President Saddam.
Although the east Europeans have in general less to offer than the west Europeans in military terms, one exception is the Czechs. With fears that President Saddam could resort to the use of chemical or biological weapons if attacked, the Czech unit is particularly valuable.