¡¡WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhuanet) -- US President George W. Bush and visiting NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer held talks on Wednesday and both stressed the importance of the Cold War-era organization.

    "The secretary-general is a visionary leader of a very important alliance, and that is NATO," Bush told reporters after his meeting with the NATO chief.

    "America's a proud member of NATO. We view NATO as our link, our transatlantic link to Europe," Bush said.

    "Under the secretary-general's leadership, NATO has been activein places like Afghanistan and training troops in NATO. And today we discussed the NATO mission in Darfur, to help deal with human suffering in that part of the world," Bush said.

    For his part, Scheffer said NATO is still a value-driven organization.

    "NATO has always been and still is a value-driven organization.It's about values," Scheffer said. Enditem