Brussels - Albania and Croatia are set to take a step closer to joining NATO on Wednesday when current members sign key protocols paving the way for bringing them into the alliance.

The ceremony of signing the NATO accession protocols, which the foreign ministers of the two countries are set to watch at the alliance's Brussels headquarters, formalizes the political invitation which NATO leaders issued at a summit in Bucharest on April 3.

Once the protocols are signed and all 26 NATO members have ratified them, Albania and Croatia will in turn have to ratify their adherence to the North Atlantic Treaty, the document which created NATO in 1949. Once that is done, they will become full members of the alliance.

Officials say that the last time countries were invited into NATO, it took a year for the ratification process to be completed.

However, NATO leaders say they hope that on this occasion the process can be completed before the alliance's 60th-anniversary summit, which is due to be held in the French town of Strasbourg and its German neighbour, Kehl, in April 2009.

NATO leaders had hoped to invite Macedonia into the group at the same time as Albania and Croatia, but Greece vetoed the move because it is in dispute with Macedonia over the latter's name. (dpa)