LONDON Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned NATO in an interview published on Friday against inviting the Baltic states or Ukraine to join the alliance. Asked how Russia would react if Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania were asked to join NATO, Yeltsin said he hoped Western powers would be realistic enough not to do it. In NATO expansion, there is a red line for Russia which should not be crossed, the Guardian newspaper quoted him as saying.

Otherwise, European stability might not withstand the new tension. Yeltsin also ducked the question of whether he would stand for re-election in the year 2000. He has previously said he will stand aside. There are enough difficult problems in the country. They have priority, the Guardian quoted him as saying. There are still two years to go before the election so I wouldn't want to linger over this issue now.

The Russian president, in Britain for a Group of Eight summit over the weekend, said he wanted to see a great Europe including Russia. Two months ago, in an interview with Russia's Interfax news agency, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said Russia grudgingly accepted the planned admission of former Warsaw Pact states Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. But the idea that the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on Russia's borders and Soviet Republics until 1991 might also join was quite a different matter.

(Retuer)