They pledged to end the shortfalls that have plagued the NATO-led force in Afghanistan and help Kabul achieve an effective 80,000-strong army by 2010.
BUSH STRESSES OPEN DOOR POLICY
Bush did not specifically refer to his failure at his farewell summit to push Ukraine's and Georgia's MAP bids through but said NATO must continue to be open to enlargement.
"NATO's door must remain open to other nations in Europe that share our love for liberty," he said in a speech.
NATO foreign ministers will review progress on the applications of Ukraine and Georgia at a meeting in December.
Public support for NATO is barely 30 percent in Ukraine and Georgia does not control all of its territory because of frozen conflicts with the Russian-backed separatists.
In a letter to the leaders of Georgia's rebel regions, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted Georgia's "accelerated Euro-Atlantic integration" and assured breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of his support.
Putin arrived in Bucharest on Thursday evening for talks with NATO leaders on Friday. He steps down in May and hands power to protege Dmitry Medvedev.
Macedonia was told an invitation could be issued by ambassadors as soon as a "mutually acceptable solution" to the name issue was found, NATO states agreed in a communique.
"This is a huge disappointment. We have been told we have done everything we should have done in terms of reforms and military contributions. We are being punished because we are Macedonians," government spokesman Nikola Dimitrov said, adding the move "goes against stability in the Balkans."
Greece objects to use of the name Macedonia because this is the name of Greece's most northerly province.
The final summit communique welcomed "the substantive contribution to the protection of the allies" from a planned U.S. missile shield based partly in eastern Europe.
That was the message Washington had sought from the summit after it became clear that allies would not go as far as taking procurement decisions on a possible NATO add-on system to cover those parts of southeast Europe not under its umbrella.
