This would set still lower ceilings on long-range missiles although this is likely to

This would set still lower ceilings on long-range missiles, although this is likely to depend on the ratification of Start II.. A wheelchair-bound United States President and an ageing leader of Russia will attempt to map out the future of European security today at a meeting superficially reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt's talks with Josef Stalin at Yalta in 1945. President Bill Clinton, hobbled by a knee injury, and President Boris Yeltsin, recently recovered from heart surgery andpneumonia, hope to settle at least some details of a new security order that would deepen Nato's relationship with Russia while permitting the alliance to expand into Central and East Europe. A clear sign that the US and Russia are making progress emerged yesterday when Mr Yeltsin's spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, indicated that Moscow was no longer demanding that its agreement with Nato should be legally binding. He suggested that Russia would be satisfied if the agreement was "politically binding", as was the 1975 Helsinki Final Act on European security.It remains unclear, however, whether the Nato-Russia agreement will be ready for signing at the time of the alliance's July summit in Madrid, when Nato will issue formal invitations to its prospective new members.As the two leaders flew into Helsinki yesterday, Russian officials were adamant that the Kremlin would not change its view that Nato was making a grave mistake by insisting on enlargement.

Mr Yeltsin, in a statement at the airport, predicted that his summit talks would be "difficult and serious" but said he thought Mr Clinton would work to find a compromise.US officials stressed, as they have done for months, that Nato's planned expansion was not directed against Russia, but acknowledged that the Russians did not see matters in the same light. "I think that they have not yet internalised what is that we have been telling them," Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, said.Samuel Berger, Mr Clinton's National Security Adviser, added: "We are going to disagree on Nato enlargement ... and the issue is how we work together in spite of that issue on which we disagree."The summit, the 12th meeting between Mr Clinton and Mr Yeltsin in five years, is viewed across Europe as one of the most significant US-Russian encounters since 1945, with much at stake for the whole continent. The two men were guests last night at a banquet in Finland's presidential palace, but the substantial talks start today.Mr Yeltsin, looking thinner but more cheerful and robust than for many months, braved icy weather as he spoke at the airport of his hopes for the summit.

"The most important thing we must remember is that not only our two countries but Europe and the whole world are watching us. We must not lose the partnership that we have developed in recent times," he said.Despite Russia's steadfast public opposition to Nato enlargement, the outlines of a deal that will enable the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to join the alliance by 1999 have been gradually hammered out in recent weeks at private talks between Russian and Western officials. If all goes well at the summit, the future relationship will be codified in a document that will guarantee close Russian involvement in many alliance activities and deepen co-operation on matters such as military doctrines, nuclear non-proliferation and counter-terrorism.. Agencies - Nato should invite only three new members when the alliance moves toward eastward expansion this summer, Germany's Defence Minister said yesterday. "I favour starting carefully and then developing the relationship between Nato and Russia," Volker Ruhe said. "In my view, we should start with three members." The alliance plans to offer some former Soviet bloc countries membership at an alliance summit meeting in Madrid on 8-9 July. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary are the most likely candidates But some countries have plumped for other candidates.

Italy has backed Slovenia and France has called for Romania to be invited.Mr Ruhe's comments made it plain that Germany opposes widening the first group, although he said the allies have not made a final decision. Mr Ruhe added: "There must also be a clear signal that the process will continue."There is still debate within Nato over whether enlargement will continue to include a second wave of countries.President Jacques Chirac said yesterday that all European countries had a right to join the Atlantic alliance. Mr Chirac's office said he made the comment in a meeting with visiting Slovakian Prime Minister, Vladimir Meciar, whose country is not expected to be in the first group of countries invited to join the alliance.There is particular concern amongst the Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, that they will not be included in the first wave of expansion. In Brussels, on Wednesday, Lithuania's Foreign Minister, Algirdas Saudargas, said at least one of the three should be included."In order to make the enlargement process a success, it is important that at least one Baltic country should be invited to join the alliance with the first group," Mr Saudargas told a meeting of Nato ambassadors and aspirant members.

"We want to be part of the alliance, because both common sense and the success of the alliance members suggest that the best, the most effective, and the least expensive way of building and developing a national defence system is through participation in collective defence arrangements."In Helsinki yesterday, about 30 Lithuanian students gathered across the street from President Bill Clinton's hotel to press their demand for their country's admission to Nato. The students, chanting "We will be in Nato," to the rhythm of Queen's "We Will Rock You," earlier stood outside Finlandia Hall, one of the press centres set up for the meeting of Mr Clinton and Russia's President Boris Yeltsin.The students distributed flyers appealing to Mr Clinton to push for Nato membership for Lithuania, because "our security and enhanced stability are not a threat to anybody, neither East nor West".. It was February 1966. Harold Wilson, the British prime minister, and Andrei Kosygin, the Soviet leader, were heading for Moscow airport in the back of a limousine.