The US says it will not allow Russia to take advantage of its military victory over Georgia and veto NATO entry for former Soviet states.

"We will not permit Russia to veto the future of NATO, neither the countries offered membership nor their decision to accept it," secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said n an interview published Sunday in the Typos newspaper.

Rice's comments come while Moscow has repeatedly criticized NATO plans for an eastward expansion, which is an open breach of a NATO promise made to the last Soviet Union Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev upon the union's 1991 dismemberment.

"We and our European allies will give our help to Georgia...The United States and Europe strongly support the independence and the territorial integrity of Russia's neighbors," Rice said, Reuters reported.

At an April summit, NATO stopped short of putting Ukraine and Georgia immediately on the path to joining the transatlantic military alliance, but pledged that the two ex-Soviet states would one day become members.

Despite Washington's strong support for Georgia and Ukraine's NATO membership bid, US allies including Germany and France are reluctant towards provoking Russia.

Ukraine's NATO bid is also facing opposition at home where many citizents favor ties with Russia.

RB/MMN