SOFIA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), will not deploy nuclear weapons in Bulgaria, a Bulgarian newspaper reported on Wednesday.

    The alliance had no plans to deploy nuclear weapons at the U.S. military bases in Bulgaria, the daily paper quoted Gay Roberts, deputy assistant to NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, as saying.

    NATO members would meet to discuss the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons on Bulgaria's territory in the case of a major crisis he said, adding that it must get approval from the Bulgarian government in advance.

    Under an agreement to be signed by Bulgaria and the United States later this month, the U.S. military would be able to use three Bulgarian military bases in central Bulgaria for ten years. It also allows the U.S. use of a storage facility at Aitos near Bulgaria's port of Burgas.

    Parliamentarians from the Socialist party, a partner of the ruling coalition, had called for long-term inspections of the planned U.S. bases to ensure that they would not jeopardize Bulgaria's national security.

    Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 along with six other east European countries in the bloc's latest expansion, raising its number of members from 19 to 26. Enditem