Montenegro ready for NATO membership

brussels - The tiny Balkan country of Montenegro is ready to become the 29th member of NATO. The last outstanding bumps are resolved Friday, according to sources within the military alliance.

NATO ministers meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday the country can expect the official invitation for accession. Montenegro was a republic of the former Yugoslavia. Later Montenegro formed a confederation with Serbia. As it got in 2006 and became independent again. It has about 600 000 inhabitants.

Russia has called a possible accession of Montenegro to the alliance detrimental to European security. Montenegro 's membership of the alliance would " be a further blow" for relations between Russia and NATO, said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Moscow earlier this week.

The military side of things he plays. " The Montenegrin army has about 2000 men. That raises the question of what the country added security, NATO can bring ", the spokesman said.