AMBASSADOR REFUTES CLAIMS FROM FOREIGN MINISTRY STATEMENT

ZAGREB, Jan 16 (Hina) - Ambassador Celestin Sardelic refuted on Friday allegations from a Croatian Foreign Ministry statement of Thursday which said that he had taken part in preparing today's Croatian-Slovene foreign ministerial meeting in Zagreb and would be in the Croatian delegation due to hold talks with the Slovenes, saying "they don't correspond to the truth at all".#L# In a written statement delivered to Hina, Sardelic said he was informed over the phone by the Foreign Ministry yesterday that he would not be part of the Croatian delegation set to hold talks with the Slovenes. In a statement Hina carried on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said the claims Sardelic had made in a letter explaining his resignation were unfounded, that he had taken part in preparations for today's meeting in Zagreb and been included in the delegation due to hold talks with the Slovenes. Sardelic wrote today the claims made in the Foreign Ministry statement were entirely untrue. The media reported yesterday that Sardelic had tendered an irrevocable resignation to his post of Croatian ambassador to Slovenia to President Stjepan Mesic. They quoted the letter in which Sardelic said that he had been excluded from normal communication with the Croatian Foreign Ministry, had not been invited to Friday's meeting between the two foreign ministers, Croatia's Miomir Zuzul and Slovenia's Dimitrij Rupel, and that baseless assessments of his work were being made in public without anyone distancing themselves from them. In yesterday's statement the Foreign Ministry said it had not made any assessments of Sardelic's work and that communication with the Ministry had been intensive, notably when Friday's meeting was being prepared. (Hina) ha sb