"NATO has always galvanized behind strong leadership, and I think they will continue to do that," a Pentagon official said privately Saturday, implying the enlargement would not alter overall decision-making.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will accompany US President George W. Bush to Prague on November 21-22 for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's summit.

NATO enlargement will top the agenda: The 19-nation alliance is due to extend deeper than ever into the former Soviet bloc, when it invites Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia and Slovakia to join.

"The headline should be "NATO is dead, long live NATO", as America is attempting to resurrect it," said Simon Serfaty, an analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The US hopes to overhaul NATO and reassess the alliance's ability to respond to new threats of terrorism, Serfaty said, adding that next week's Prague summit could be chance to tackle publicly differences between Washington and key western European allies such as France and Germany over controversial issues.

One of them is a potential war with Iraq.

"Iraq is typical of the most important example of the kind of threat that NATO will face in the future," Bush's National Security adviser Condoleezza Rice said.

"It would be odd if this were not an issue at the summit, but it is not the reason for this summit," she said, adding that the central issue would be NATO enlargement, and military preparedness with regard to terrorism.

"All NATO members today face common threats from terrorists and the states that sponsor them," Rice said.

"These threats require a different kind of military force to defend against, a force that is lighter, more agile and more flexible."

According to the Pentagon official, Rumsfeld at the summit will call upon US allies to concentrate their efforts on a few areas.

"These areas include defending against chemical, biological, radiological threats," said the official, who will be traveling to Prague with Rumsfeld.

The same official said the US defense chief will also underscore the need to focus on "secure command, control, communication capabilities and interoperability; improving combat effectiveness; and improving deployability and particularly sustainability, both inside and outside the European theater."

The summit also is due to create a NATO rapid-response force with 21,000 troops.

In redefining NATO's command structure in the post-Cold War era and in the face of an unprecedented terrorist threat, the alliance will also emphasize developing expertise in niche areas, such as the control of radioactive weapons.

The US has acknowledged France and Britain's special forces expertise, the Czech Republic's in biochemical warfare and Romania's in combat on mountainous terrain.

Rumsfeld also will urge the alliance's European members to increase their mid-air refueling jets and troop transport aircraft.

"The enlargement creates opportunities for the US defense industry," said Jay Ferrar, also with the CSIS, "but it makes the European defense industry nervous."

Former US president Bill Clinton was the one who pushed hard for the enlargement to the east after the Cold War.

Bush has yet to define clearly what vision his administration has for the future Atlantic alliance.