Giuliani says NATO should admit Israel, Japan

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani urged NATO to admit Australia, India, Israel, Japan and Singapore on Wednesday as part of proposals to combat Islamic extremism.

Speaking to a U.S.-British conservative group in London, Giuliani said Britain and the United States must stand side-by-side in tackling Islamic terrorism.

"This is no time for defeatism and appeasement," he said.

He also ruled out a "pre-determined timetable" for a U.S. pullout from Iraq and said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was right to reject such a timetable for British forces.

Victory there should depend on reaching a point at which Iraq could be maintained as a U.S. ally "in the terrorist war against us", said Giuliani, Republican frontrunner in the race to succeed George W. Bush in the November 2008 election.

Iraq was part of a much larger war, Giuliani said, urging Washington and London not to be distracted from Afghanistan, where he called for a redoubling of efforts.

Among his proposals for the United States and Britain to take the lead in "winning this war", Giuliani urged the two countries to push for an expansion of NATO into a global body.

"We should open the organization's membership to any willing state that meets basic standards of good governance, military readiness (and) global responsibility, regardless of location," he said.  Continued...