CROATIA SAYS AT U.N. IS ACTIVE IN FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 20 (Hina) - Croatia is active in the fight against international terror and maintains the U.N. would considerably help the struggle if it established a fund for technical and financial assistance, Croatia's representative to the world organisation said in New York on Thursday. #L# The United Nations Security Council today considered threats posed by terrorism to international peace and security. The U.N. has proved to be irreplaceable in the fight against terrorism and in the creation of international anti-terror legislation, Jasna Ognjanovac, charge d'affaires of the Croatian mission, told the Security Council. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., the Council adopted resolution 1373 and set up the Counter-Terrorism Committee. Ognjanovac said the establishment of a U.N. fund for cooperation and help in combating terrorism would be especially useful. She said Croatia already had a series of projects which would benefit from such help, ranging from border supervision, police training, and counter-terrorist experts, to protection from weapons of mass destruction. Croatia has already signed six of the most important U.N. conventions aimed at cracking down on terrorism. Ognjanovac said Croatia was active in a series of regional counter- terrorism initiatives, and that it participated in various projects through the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, the Central European Initiative, the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative, the Budapest Process, and the South-Eastern European Cooperation Initiative. Croatia has also signed bilateral agreement on cooperation in combating terrorism with 18 countries and is preparing to do so with another 23, Ognjanovac said. (hina) ha sb