Brussels - NATO expects "ever stronger cooperation" from US president-elect Barak Obama at a crucial time for the transatlantic alliance, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Wednesday.

"Today's security challenges require an ever stronger cooperation and solidarity between Allies, and I look forward to the role the United States will continue to play in this regard under president-elect Obama's leadership," the NATO chief said in a statement.

Obama has indicated that he will pull US troops out of Iraq and boost the US presence in Afghanistan, where NATO has been struggling to quash the Taliban insurgency.

The alliance, which turns 60 years old next year, is also facing a prickly relationship with Russia over NATO's plans to expand its membership in Eastern Europe to include Ukraine and Georgia.

Outgoing US President George W Bush has pushed for Georgia to join NATO, whose membership aspirations analysts say were partly to blame for its August conflict with Russia.

NATO-Russia relations have also been strained by Bush's plans to install a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, two former members of the Cold War-era Warsaw Pact which have since joined the US-dominated alliance. (dpa)