We had a very good meeting. We have excellent military relations with Croatia and we strongly support Croatia's aspirations to become a NATO member, Rumsfeld said.
We are very pleased that Minister Roncevic will also visit Minnesota, he added.
For the past ten years Croatia has been closely cooperating with the Minnesota National Guard as part of a US state partnership programme with new democracies in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
Asked by a reporter when Croatia could expect to be admitted to NATO, Rumsfeld said he did not know and that it depended on the Croatian people, the Croatian government and other NATO members.
Roncevic said he was very pleased to be meeting Secretary Rumsfeld again, after their recent meeting at a conference in Albania.
"Peace and stability in Southeast Europe was the subject of the conference in Tirana, just as it was today," Roncevic said, noting that "the strong support of the United States is most important to Croatia today."
Asked what the Croatian government was doing to improve the public perception of NATO in the country, Roncevic said that the government had commissioned a special, marketing-based stratety to explain NATO's values and to dispel prejudice against the military alliance.
"NATO is not the war in Iraq, as is often thought in Croatia. NATO is a system of values of which Croatia wants to be a full member," the Croatian defence minister said.
During their visit to Washington, Roncevic and the Defence Ministry delegation will visit Andrews Air Force Base and the house where George Washington was born. Later on, they will travel to Minnesota.
After the visit to the US, the Croatian delegation travels to Canada for a three-day working visit.