FACTBOX - Profiles of NATO hopefuls

(Reuters) - Following are key facts about Albania, Croatia and Macedonia, the Balkan countries hoping to be invited to join NATO this week. All three already have small contingents of troops serving in United Nations and NATO-led missions.

ALBANIA

POPULATION: 3.6 million (estimate), of which 95 percent are ethnic Albanians. Minorities include Greeks, Vlachs and Roma.

RECENT HISTORY: Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha ruled with an iron fist after World War Two, closing Albania off to the world and building a massive arsenal for a capitalist invasion that never came. Communism fell in 1990 and democratic norms have taken time to establish, with one spell of anarchy.

AREA: 28,748 sq km, with 362 km of mostly untouched coastline. It borders Montenegro, Kosovo, Greece, and faces Italy across the Adriatic Sea.

ECONOMY: Albania is one of Europe's poorest countries, with a large grey economy and many families reliant on remittances from relatives working abroad. The government hopes to maintain the strong growth rates of recent years by cutting red tape and wooing foreign investors otherwise deterred by a reputation for energy shortages, bad roads and corruption.

MILITARY: Military service is still compulsory but due to be abolished by 2010, making way for a professional army of 14,500 people. Albania is already selling obsolete Soviet and Chinese-made tanks, planes and guns for scrap, and plans to modernise through purchases suitable to its rugged, often inaccessible terrain.

CROATIA

POPULATION: 4.4 million (2001 census), of which nearly four million are ethnic Croats. Minorities include Serbs, Italians, Slovenes, Hungarians, Muslims and Albanians.