* Alliance set on admitting Georgia as a member
* NATO ready to promote better Moscow-Tbilisi ties.
* Russia yet to accept invitation for talks at Lisbon summit
By Margarita Antidze
TBILISI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - The door to NATO membership remains open for Georgia despite the alliance&${esc.hash}39;s efforts to mend relations with its regional rival Russia, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Friday.
NATO leaders meeting in Lisbon next month are likely to reaffirm a promise made before Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 that Georgia will eventually join the alliance, Rasmussen said during a visit to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
"I would expect the NATO summit in Lisbon to reaffirm our position which we took already in Bucharest in 2008 that Georgia will become a member of NATO, once Georgia fulfils the necessary criteria," Rasmussen told a news conference.
At its Bucharest summit in 2008, NATO said Georgia and Ukraine would become members but refrained from putting them on an immediate path to membership.
Four months later, an assault by Georgia&${esc.hash}39;s U.S.-trained military on the Russian-backed rebel region of South Ossetia led to a crushing counter strike from Russia, Georgia&${esc.hash}39;s former Soviet master.
The conflict caused the most serious rift between Russia and the West since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Relations between NATO and Russia were frozen after the war and were restored earlier this year.
Rasmussen said NATO was ready to cooperate with Russia and to promote better ties between Moscow and Tbilisi.
"My vision is to see a development of a true Euro-Atlantic security architecture, where ... Russia and Georgia can live in peace and harmony with each other.
"I do believe that Russia&${esc.hash}39;s future lies within positive cooperation with NATO and the European Union."
NATO members say a military build-up by Russia in South Ossetia and Abkhazia violates a ceasefire that ended the five-day war and have called on Russia to renounce its recognition of the breakaway regions as independent states.
NATO wants more support from Russia on security issues such as the war in Afghanistan and a potential threat from Iran. The alliance has invited Russia for talks on the sidelines of the Lisbon summit in November, but Moscow has yet to accept.
Speaking at the same news conference, Georgia&${esc.hash}39;s pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili reiterated his country&${esc.hash}39;s eagerness to join the alliance.
"There is one thing that Georgia can never compromise on. It&${esc.hash}39;s an issue of freedom. For us right now NATO stands for the idea of freedom and that&${esc.hash}39;s why it still has very strong support of the Georgian nation," Saakashvili said.
The NATO chief&${esc.hash}39;s visit to Georgia coincided with the deaths of four Georgians serving with NATO-led operations in Afghanistan. He said the Georgian soldiers "paid the highest price for freedom".
Georgian troops have participated in NATO operations in Afghanistan since 2004, an illustration of Tbilisi&${esc.hash}39;s ambitions to join NATO despite Russia&${esc.hash}39;s opposition and waning enthusiasm among alliance members. (Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Steve Gutterman and Andrew Dobbie)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
