Tension marks Nato summit closure

Tensions over Nato’s expansion to the East flared today as the alliance’s two-day summit closed with a diplomatic row and a protest from Russian communist hardliners.

The protocol row was sparked this morning when Ukraine’s President Leonid Kuchmar insisted on attending a meeting of Nato’s Europe Atlantic Partnership Council, despite being accused of selling military radar equipment to Saddam Hussein in breach of a United Nations arms embargo on Iraq.