The United States will continue to push the NATO alliance to offer Georgia the Membership Action Plan (MAP) status, U.S. State Department said on Monday.
"I am sure the issue will come up. Our policy is unchanged," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, adding "I expect there is going to be a healthy discussion among the North Atlantic Council."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Brussels to participate in the annual formal meeting of NATO foreign ministers on December 2-3. The tension between Georgia and Russia is expected to be high on agenda of the meeting.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski said they were met with gunfire when they visited a Russian checkpoint near the South Ossetian boundary on Sunday. Russia denied the claim.
Russia sent in troops in August after Georgia launched a sudden attack to retake its breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia, two weeks after defeating Georgia in the brief war.
The so-called MAP is a NATO program of advice, assistance and practical support tailored to the individual needs of countries wishing to join the alliance. At present, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia are MAP members.
Participation in the MAP does not prejudge any decision by NATO on future membership, but is viewed as a royal road to the alliance.
The Bush administration has been supporting Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO, some NATO members, such as France and Germany worry about the move would provoke Russia led by Vladimir Putin and his successor Dmitry Medvedev.
NATO has already expanded eastward, incorporating former Warsaw Pact countries, including Poland and Hungary. Russia has expressed strong objections to letting either Ukraine or Georgia join the alliance. Both were major components of the former Soviet Union.