CROATIAN MINISTER FOR PROMOTION OF COOPERATION WITH UKRAINE

KIEV, April 23 (Hina) - It is necessary to work on creating an institutional framework for the intensification of economic cooperation between Croatia and Ukraine, Croatian Economy Minister Ljubo Jurcic said at a news conference on Wednesday after the signing of the protocol on the first meeting of the inter- governmental Ukrainian-Croatian committee for economic and trade cooperation in Kiev. #L# The committee is chaired by Croatian Minister Jurcic and the state secretary of the Ukrainian economy ministry, Volodimir Leonidovic Persin. At the new conference both sides expressed satisfaction with the signed protocol and the beginning of the committee's activities. Minister Jurcic said the Croatian government fully supported the project of Druzba and Adria (the oil pipe lines connecting eastern Europe and the Adriatic), which was of the great economic importance, and was taking care of the control over the project and its possible impact on the environment. Jurcic announced that all technical and ecological issues would be solved by the start of the next spring, so that the project might be realised in mid-2004. The Croatian minister held talks with managers of the leading Ukrainian transport company -- Ukrtansnaft -- which is a signatory to the said project. The CEO of the Croatian oil pipe-line company (JANAF), Vesna Trnokop-Tanta, held talks with the Ukrtansnaft CEO, Alexander Todiychuk, on the acceleration of the implementation of the Druzba and Adria project. (hina) ms