HSP LEADER ON SAVUDRIJA BAY, NEW STAND-BY DEAL, BECHTEL

ZADAR, Aug 10 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), Anto Djapic, told a news conference in the coastal town of Zadar on Tuesday that there were problems in the country but that neither the government nor political parties were reacting. He said the issue of Savudrija Bay was an example of how relations with Slovenia were sharpening. This case shows that Slovenia still insists on the Piran Memorandum from 1993 as well as on the initialled Drnovsek-Racan agreement, Djapic said. Now one can see how wrong was the move of the Ivo Sanader government to abandon the implementation of the fishing and ecological zone because Slovenia will not stop blackmailing and pressuring Croatia as well as obstructing Croatia's European integration processes, the HSP leader said. He added that Sanader's government failed to find a way to stop Croatia's progressive indebtedness. Djapic said the International Monetary Fund had approved a new stand-by deal to Croatia in the time when both the Croatian parliament and the government were on a summer break, stressing that the deal would be discussed after its implementation. Djapic also said that the government's promise that it would increase pensions by 15 percent this fall would contribute to the budget revision. Commenting on the Bechtel case, Djapic said the Ivo Sanader cabinet made a mistake by not inviting bids for the construction of a section of the Split-Dubrovnik highway. He is confident that Croatian construction companies could do the job better and cheaper.