A top U.S. official says NATO will not make its final decision on which countries to invite for membership until October, and urged all candidates to redouble their preparations for entry. 

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage made his comments in Bucharest, Romania, as leaders of 10 former communist-ruled countries seeking NATO membership concluded a two-day meeting. 

The deputy secretary again stressed that the United States is seeking the widest possible NATO expansion and said it is up to the candidate states to prove their readiness. 

Monday, President Bush sent a strong message of support to the meeting and reaffirmed his commitment to removing the remaining divisions of Europe when NATO issues the invitations at its November summit in Prague. 

The 10 nations in the Vilnius Group are Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. 

The three Baltic countries - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - along with Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, are believed to have the best chances of joining the alliance in November. 

Bulgaria and Romania are being given serious consideration for NATO membership because of their cooperation with the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan. However, U.S. officials are quoted as saying the two countries must continue to make democratic reforms, improve military readiness and fight corruption to secure an invitation to join NATO. Albania, Macedonia and Croatia are seen as unlikely to receive consideration in this round of expansion. 

In 1999, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic became the first ex-communist countries to join the Western alliance. 

The Vilnius Group was founded in the Vilnius, Lithuanian, in May 2001. 

Some information for this report provided by Reuters and AFP.

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