Lithuania's election commission said on Tuesday it had started collecting signatures for a petition to hold a referendum on the Baltic country's planned NATO membership.
A national referendum is not required by NATO to join.
The referendum idea was initiated by a group led by by Lithuanian Parliament members Rolandas Pavilionis and Egidijus Klumbys, both belonging to the ruling leftist coalition.
"The aim of the referendum is to ask the nation's opinion on...NATO membership," Pavilionis told reporters after visiting the commission.
The group also includes former parliamentarians, a number of professors from Vilnius University and members of the clergy.
Under Lithuanian law the group has to collect 300,000 signatures supporting the referendum demand by Jan. 8.
Under the last opinion poll, carried out in May, some 51.9 percent of respondents said they support their country joining NATO, while 27.2 percent said that Lithuania should not join the transatlantic alliance.
Lithuania hopes to receive an invitation to join NATO during the alliance's upcoming summit in Prague.
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