Russian Official Backs NATO Ties to Former Warsaw Pact Countries : Alliance: The nations would not become full members. But military leaders in Moscow had balked at the plan.

Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev, brushing aside the doubts expressed by some of his country’s military leaders, on Friday endorsed a U.S. proposal to link the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe to NATO without offering them full membership in the Western alliance.

“I think it is a good, workable idea which comes from discussions we had for a long time with our American partners,” Kozyrev told reporters after a meeting with Secretary of State Warren Christopher. “We are fully supportive of the idea of partnership, which means practical deeds through enhanced security for everyone, including, of course, Central European states.”

North Atlantic Treaty Organization presidents and prime ministers are expected to act during their Jan. 10-11 summit on the U.S. plan, designated Partnership for Peace, which would offer what amounts to associate membership to Russia and other members of the defunct Warsaw Pact as well as some neutral states such as Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.

Christopher and Kozyrev were in Brussels to attend a meeting of the 2-year-old North Atlantic Cooperative Council, an organization linking NATO with the members of the former Warsaw Pact that could serve as a forerunner of the proposed partnership.

Christopher said the U.S. proposal won wide support from council members. NATO foreign ministers endorsed the idea in principle Thursday, although some European members are reluctant to let in all the nations that used to be in the Warsaw Pact. For instance, some Europeans want to exclude Ukraine until it agrees to relinquish the powerful nuclear arsenal that it inherited from the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, a senior U.S. official in Christopher’s party was jubilant at the action by both the NATO ministers and the council. He predicted approval of the plan by the NATO summit.

The United States suggested the partnership in response to the application of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia for full NATO membership. The Central European states want NATO membership to get the alliance’s “an-attack-on-one-is-an-attack-on-all” security guarantee to insulate them from the sort of ethnic warfare that has shattered the former Yugoslav federation and threatens wide areas of the former Soviet Union.

Even though the U.S. plan specifically offered membership to Russia and the 14 other nations created by the breakup of the Soviet Union, it drew objections from some Russian military leaders who considered it to be an attempt by the West to encircle Russia with potential enemies.

But Kozyrev, with Christopher at his side, said, “To my mind it boils down to a very simple but very rich idea of capitalizing on what we have already done in a cooperative manner between NATO and Russia, between NATO and Central European states, and all together.”

Although the United States objects to excluding Ukraine or any other nation from the partnership, Christopher warned Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko that the Kiev government is risking its relationship with Washington and the West by refusing to get rid of the nuclear weapons. He said that the United States will not extend economic aid to Ukraine unless it gets rid of the nuclear arms.

With Zlenko at his side, Christopher said the United States and Ukraine can never have “fully satisfactory” relations as long as Ukraine holds nuclear weaponry. Zlenko said Ukraine’s government must follow the dictates of its Parliament, which refuses to give up the arms.

For its part, Ukraine is demanding detailed security guarantees from the United States, Russia and other nuclear states in exchange for giving up the nuclear arms. According to diplomatic sources, Ukraine wants assurances that the nuclear powers will come to its aid if it comes under attack with either nuclear or conventional arms. Ukraine also wants guarantees of its territorial integrity and economic support from the United States and Russia.

U.S. officials said Washington has offered the same sort of general assurance that all nuclear states offer to all non-nuclear states under the non-proliferation treaty. But a senior U.S. official said Washington is unwilling to promise as much as Ukraine wants.