During the visit the NATO official met Prime Minister Janez Jansa and President Janez Drnovsek.
He welcomed the agreement between Russia and Georgia on the withdrawal of Russian army bases from Georgia by 2008, and spoke about the complementing roles of NATO and the EU, especially in light of France's 'no' to the European Constitution and a similar outcome that is expected from the referendum on the EU Constitution in The Netherlands.
NATO is interested in Europe's development and in avoiding the duplicating of functions, Scheffer told parliamentary deputies from NATO member and partner-countries who ended a five-day conference in Ljubljana on Tuesday. The conference focused on the transformation of NATO, cooperation in defence between NATO and the EU, and crisis areas.
When tens of thousands of people are dying, it is illogical to talk about rivalry, Scheffer said speaking about a plan for NATO and the EU to provide logistical support, at the request of the African Union, to establish an airlift to help solve the humanitarian crisis and famine that is threatening the Sudanese province of Darfur.
Speaking about the examples of good cooperation of NATO and the EU in crisis areas, Scheffer mentioned their joint operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
The Kosovo Force will remain in Kosovo, and Kosovo's status will be defined only after international standards are met, he said.
It was NATO operations in the Balkans that showed the capacity of the NATO-EU cooperation and that partnership will be needed in other areas as well, Scheffer said.
Speaking about operations in South-East Europe, Scheffer said that NATO would continue to cooperate closely with Croatia, Albania and Macedonia, and that it expected to strengthen cooperation with Serbia and Montenegro if the country cooperated with the Hague war crimes tribunal.
The Ljubljana conference ended with the adoption of a resolution conveying concern about the situation in Uzbekistan and calling on the Uzbek authorities to allow an independent investigation into the recent riots caused by the excessive use of force by the Uzbek security forces.