21.   NATO says the expansion will take several years.

22.   Some expansions took place regardless of the economic climate.

23.   The expansion Nashville Predators took former Edmonton center Zdeno Ciger with the first pick of the National Hockey League waiver draft Monday.

24.   European Union foreign ministers last month raised the possibility of a NATO-Russia non-aggression pact as a framework in which expansion could take place.

25.   NATO published last month a document on how and why an expansion could take place.

26.   Rather, expansion would take place mainly through organic growth.

27.   Saralehto also said that the EU bureaucracy must be made more efficient before expansion can take place.

28.   Rodionov meanwhile repeated a position staked out by Yeltsin last week that NATO expansion should not take place without a prior agreement with NATO.

29.   Rodionov also repeated a position staked out by President Boris Yeltsin last week that NATO expansion should not take place without a prior alliance with NATO.

30.   The expansion also took its constituent parties from five to nine.