NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer said on Friday that the alliance would provide full support to Montenegro in its military reform and the Euro-Atlantic integration process, said reports reaching here from the Montenegrin capital Podgorica.

Scheffer, who was on a one-day visit to Montenegro, told Montenegrin Defense Minister Boro Vucinic that NATO and Montenegro would soon sign a security agreement to boost bilateral cooperation.

Montenegro, together with Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, was invited to NATO's Partnership for Peace program at the alliance's Riga summit last November.

Scheffer said the initialing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the European Union and Montenegro as well as his visit to Podgorica show that Montenegro is moving in the right direction.

Montenegro and the European Union on Thursday initialed the SAA, a pre-membership agreement that will pave the way for the tiny Balkan country's possible entry into the pan-European bloc.

Source: Xinhua