SLOVENE PRESIDENT ON NUCLEAR PLANT AND SUNCANI HVAR

LJUBLJANA, Jan 30 (Hina) - The negative reactions in Croatia to the Slovene bidder's (Terme Catez) offer to purchase the Suncani Hvar hotel company reflect populism which also surfaced in Slovenia when breweries, the pharmaceutical industry and a part of the New Ljubljanska Bank were privatised, Slovene President Janez Drnovsek told a Slovene radio network on Thursday. #L# Commenting on allegations that Slovenia wants to purchase the Croatian coast, the president said this was an exaggeration. "We are not buying the entire coast, only a few hotels. It is ridiculous to talk about us purchasing all Croatian hotels," he said. The Slovene president said Croatia needed investments to revive its tourist industry as the chief source of income. Croatia's bid relating to its ownership share in the Krsko nuclear power plant is "absolutely exaggerated", said Drnovsek. Krsko is currently worth only about 300 million US dollars. The offer which the Croatian power company HEP sent to Ljubljana, with the aim of settling ownership relations in the plant, requesting more than 700 million dollars for its share, is absolutely exaggerated, said Drnovsek. "I negotiated earlier with Croatia about the possible purchase of the Croatian share in the plant, but we could never reach an agreement on the price," he said. Slovenia's estimates indicate that the Croatian share in the power plant is worth only 150 million dollars and Croatia will probably decide to initiate arbitration proceedings, said Drnovsek. (hina) lml