The US Administration promised to commit itself to ensuring that year 2008 is a year of enlargement of NATO. Macedonia, Croatia, and Albania's chances for entry in NATO are equal, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Shpresa Jusufi told Radio Free Europe yesterday.

She said that this was confirmed at the Macedonian, Croatian, and Albanian foreign ministers' meeting with Daniel Fried, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, in the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York.

This assessment of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry comes in response to the question whether the recent statement of US President George Bush, who said that he would personally commit himself to seeing Croatia enter NATO, could mean that this country is being separated from the so-called Adriatic Group, that is, whether this means that Macedonia and Albania are lagging behind on their path to NATO.