DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AFP) –- U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney concluded his visit to Croatia on Sunday with talks on NATO enlargement with leaders of Zagreb, Skopje and Tirana, which are keen to join the Alliance by 2008.

"We are strongly supportive of Croatia becoming a full member of the transatlantic community -- both in terms of working with NATO and the European community," Cheney said at the start of a dinner with Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Saturday evening.

Cheney arrived in the southern Adriatic town of Dubrovnik on Saturday and met President Stipe Mesic and Sanader.

On Sunday he was to meet with Sanader and his Albanian and Macedonian counterparts Sali Berisha and Vlado Buckovski.

Croatia, Macedonia and Albania signed an "Adriatic Charter" with the United States in May 2003 designed to facilitate their integration into the North Atlantic Alliance. The three countries hope to join by 2008.

Cheney's talks with Mesic on Saturday focused on Zagreb's bid to join NATO and the fight against terrorism.

Croatia, like other Balkan states, is anxious to demonstrate to NATO and the European Union that it meets their standards.

Cheney was due originally to leave on Monday at the end of a trip which has taken him to Lithuania and Kazakhstan. But his press spokeswoman said Saturday his return to Washington had been moved forward to Sunday. The change will not curtail the talks foreseen here.

Croatia, Albania and Macedonia are members of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

The program was set up after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of communism in central and eastern Europe, to establish military cooperation between the former Soviet bloc states and NATO countries, together with European neutrals.

But public support in Croatia for NATO membership is very low, with only 29 percent in favor, according to a recent opinion poll.