CONTRACT ON NEW KRSKO PLANT COMPANY TO GO IN FORCE ON 5 APRIL

ZAGREB, March 25 (Hina) - Croatian Economy Minister Ljubo Jurcic and Slovenian Environmental Protection and Power Minister Janez Kopac on Tuesday agreed that a contract on a new (joint) company 'Nuclear Power Plant Krsko' would take effect on 5 April this year. The contract is a part of a bilateral agreement on the Krsko plant, the Croatian economy ministry reported today. #L# "On 1 April Croatia will become the co-owner of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant, in the term of the status, legal sense and management, and on 5 April the founding assembly of the new company will be held when the new management and new supervisory board should be elected," Minister Jurcic told reporters. Minister Kopac could not say when exactly the Croatian Power Company (HEP) would re-start receiving electricity from Krsko, given that the nuclear power plant in that Slovenian town had already made contracts on the sale of some power to other users, and those amounts should be substituted in that case. Slovenia's debts to Croatia, calculated according to how much power should have been transmitted to Croatia from 1 July 2002 to the re- start of the delivery of new supplies will be regulated by a separate agreement, Minister Jurcic added. He believes that a deal of this kind will be made within 60 days, the time term which the Croatian parliament has given to the government for the resolution of issues in relation to the implementation of the Krsko power plant agreement. The HEP is asking 56 million dollars as Slovenia's debt for Ljubljana's failure to deliver electricity from 1 July 2002 until now, with monthly bills coming to five to six million dollars. The bilateral agreement was signed on 19 December 2001, the Sabor ratified the document on 3 July 2002, and the Slovenian parliament did it on 25 February this year. (hina) ms sb