Officials from more than 20 countries will gather in the Latvian capital on Friday to discuss the impact of EU and NATO expansion to the three former Soviet-bloc Baltic states of Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania.

"Democracy has been re-established in the regions that are now rooted in NATO and the European Union. However, the quest for democracy in Europe has not ended," according to a background paper prepared for the one-day conference, entitled the "Future of democracy beyond the Baltics".

"Sadly, there remain countries whose leaders are still attached to the temptations of political authoritarianism and geopolitical isolation," it said.

While Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are all set to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization this year, neighbouring Belarus and Ukraine, which are also former Soviet republics and currently at odds to differing degrees with the West, are shut out of the exercise.

The conference will be attended by delegations from those countries, along with a joint US Senate and Congressional delegation headed by Senator John McCain.