SLOVENE PM'S STATEMENT INAPPROPRIATE - CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY

ZAGREB, June 19 (Hina) - Croatia's foreign ministry has criticised Slovene Prime Minister Anton Rop for making support to Croatia's admission to the EU conditional on completion of succession to socialist Yugoslavia. #L# Rop's statement is inappropriate and is not conducive to a fast solution of the succession issue, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday, adding Rop's claim brought into question Slovenia's readiness to shed light on the former federation's missing funds. During talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday, Rop said Slovenia would support Croatia's admission to the European Union provided succession to the ex-Yugoslavia was completed successfully, according to Slovene media. In today's statement, Croatia's foreign ministry says Slovenia unreservedly supported Croatia's drawing closer and entry to the EU at all bilateral meetings, never hinting at the possibility of linking support to the previous completion of the succession issue. The ministry recalls Croatia was among the first to have initiated the ratification of a succession deal but stopped when it was established that US$0.5 million was missing from ex-Yugoslavia's funds. Over the past two years Croatia has invested considerable effort and opened the possibility of cooperating with the successor states in attempts to establish facts and remove obstacles to the ratification of the succession deal, the ministry said. To that effect the Croatian government recently decided to sue LHB Frankfurt, a mixed-ownership German bank whose majority owner is Slovenia's Ljubljanska Bank and which denied data regarding a missing $67 million, said the ministry. It added the succession issue would be solved once facts concerning the missing funds were established and conditions were created to ratify the succession deal under which the former federation's joint funds would be distributed. (hina) ha