HELSINKI, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Finland and Sweden have put forward a proposal to NATO on reforming the Partnership for Peace program in order to make it more efficient, the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported on Tuesday.

    The proposal, described as a working paper, was drawn up in advance of the NATO summit to be held in the Latvian capital of Riga in late November. NATO is expected to decide on the guidelines of a more efficient partnership, even though final decisions are not to be made until 2008.

    Under the proposal, the partners should get more information at an earlier stage of NATO's plans for crisis management operations, and become involved at as early a stage as possible in preparations and in the assembly of forces linked with NATO-led operations, the report said.

    Finland and Sweden also would like to have access to NATO's classified intelligence information and to see NATO's operational plans as early as possible.

    They propose that NATO should also allow officers of the partners into its headquarters and command systems as soon as a crisis management operation has started. Enditem