Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Croatia next month for meetings with European leaders.

The vice president will address a summit of the leaders of the Baltic and Black Sea regions on May 4 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The White House said Cheney would emphasize the importance of the region's democratic transformation and President Bush's goal of advancing freedom.

Cheney also will visit Kazakhstan to meet with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has led the oil-rich Central Asian nation since the Soviet era. Cheney's mission is "to strengthen our bilateral relationship on the basis of our shared strategic interests and desire to promote democratic reform and economic development," the White House said.

In his final stop, Cheney will travel to Croatia to meet with its leadership and hold discussions with the leaders of the Adriatic Charter Countries: Croatia, Albania, and Macedonia.

 Taken from the San Francisco Chronicle.