SLOVENIA'S ROP AND RUPEL COMMENT ON BORDER ARBITRATION WITH CROATIA

LJUBLJANA, April 15 (Hina) - Slovenia's Prime Minister Anton Rop said on Thursday that his country continued to view the Drnovsek-Racan agreement as a basis for a settlement to border issues with Croatia, even in the case of international arbitration, which had been discussed by Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel and his Croatian counterpart Miomir Zuzul.#L# "That agreement is and will always be the basis for our negotiations with Croatia, even in the eventuality of arbitration," Rop said at a session of his party's executive committee. After encountering strong criticism following his meeting with Zuzul in Ljubljana last week, Rupel on Thursday withdrew his statement about Slovenia's positive attitude to arbitration on the sea border and the possibility of the issue being resolved by the end of this year. "The government has not changed its position on resolving the border issue with Croatia, and we are still guided by the Drnovsek-Racan agreement," Rupel told a session of the Slovene Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee in response to deputies' questions about his talks with the Croatian minister. "Croatia wants only the sea border to be the subject of arbitration, but Slovenia will not agree to the agreement between the two former prime ministers being annulled. We are not afraid of arbitration, but considering the circumstances it will not be possible to reach agreement on it before the end of the year," the Slovene news agency STA quoted Rupel as saying. Slovene media said on Thursday that the latest harmonised statements by Rop and Rupel regarding the border with Croatia left open the possibility of Rupel remaining in the government despite their disagreement over Rupel's opposition to Chief Public Prosecutor Zdenka Cerar being appointed new justice minister. (Hina) vm sb