CROATIAN PRIME MINISTER SATISFIED WITH TALKS IN BRUSSELS

BRUSSELS, Jan 12 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader expressed satisfaction with the talks he had in Brussels on Monday, saying he was optimistic about Croatia's European Union membership bid.#L# Sanader met European Commission President Romano Prodi and Agriculture and Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler. "Personally, I am very satisfied with the talks with President Prodi. We met privately first and then at lunch when we were joined by other members of the delegation," Sanader told Croatian reporters. The prime minister expressed confidence that Croatia would receive a positive opinion from the European Commission in the spring and would be given candidate status in June, and that ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) by countries that have not yet done it would not be set as a condition for the positive opinion. Addressing a press conference after meeting Sanader, Prodi linked the publication of the opinion on Croatia's membership application to ratification of the SAA between Croatia and the EU by Great Britain and the Netherlands. Speaking of his talks with Fischler, Sanader said they had discussed relations between Croatia and the European Commission in general, noting that the talks were held in "a very open and friendly atmosphere". The prime minister said they had not discussed the ecological and fishing zone that Croatia declared last year, when it drew criticism from the European Union. The Croatian delegation included Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul, European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic. Zuzul met his Belgian counterpart Louis Michel in the morning and the US Ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, in the afternoon. Sanader is due to meet NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Tuesday, after which he leaves for Strasbourg. (Hina) vm sb