KIEV, July 14: US-Ukrainian military exercises began on the Black Sea on Monday amid anti-Nato protests that indicated the deep hostility among some in this former Soviet republic toward the Western military bloc.

The two-week Sea Breeze exercises also involve 15 other countries, including Nato members. The purpose is to practice for multinational peacekeeping operations. Ukrainian leaders who favour joining Nato also hope the drills will help bring their country closer to Nato and Western military standards.

The exercises will involve warships, planes, helicopters, armoured vehicles and various kinds of troops.

Anti-Nato protesters have set up camps in the area along the Black Sea coast and held rallies. Several dozen activists, mostly retirees, in the port city of Odessa held English-language posters reading “Nato Off” and shouting “We will not invite Nato into our home.”

Organisers, however, vowed that the rallies would not disturb the drills.

“We are moving toward the European Union, we are moving toward Western standards,” navy chief Vice Adm Ihor Tenyukh said at a news conference in Odessa in footage broadcast by Channel-5. “The task will be carried out in an excellent way.”Potential Nato membership is a highly divisive issue in Ukraine, a France-sized nation of 46 million that lies between Russia and Nato member nations in Europe.

Pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko and other leaders asked Nato in January to grant the nation a roadmap to joining the alliance, leading to weeks of protests in parliament and noisy rallies on the streets. Nato declined to grant the request -- in part due to concerns about Russia, which vocally opposes membership for Ukraine — but assured the nation it would eventually open its doors.

According to a June poll conducted by the Razumkov Centre, 60 per cent of Ukrainians opposed joining Nato, up from 53 per cent in February. The number of those in favour stayed the same: 21 per cent. The rest of the respondents were either undecided or uninterested. The survey of 2,001 people across Ukraine had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

Sociologists say negative attitudes toward Nato have grown this year, sparked by government efforts to join the bloc and the ensuing protests, but they also attribute the hostility to poor information on the alliance among many Ukrainians.

The Sea Breeze drills have been taking place annually 1997.

In 2006, protests forced US Marine reservists who came to prepare for the exercises to leave without carrying out their mission.—AP