PRESS: WAR OF NERVES BETWEEN CROATIA, SLOVENIA WILL CONTINUE

LJUBLJANA, Sept 6 (Hina) - The Slovene press on Saturday continues to bring articles and commentaries about the ongoing dispute between Slovenia and Croatia regarding Croatia's plans to proclaim an exclusive economic zone in the Adriatic. #L# The Maribor-based "Vecer" daily says it is difficult to expect that the "diplomatic war" between Ljubljana and Zagreb will end soon. "After the latest dispute, it is difficult to believe that either of the sides will save their face. The tense status quo and the war of nerves will continue instead," says the daily. Commentator Boris Jausovec claims that the conflict has been caused by Croatian diplomats' using the term "economic belt" and not "exclusive economic zone", covering up their actual plans and mixing terms, which makes diplomats in Ljubljana nervous. The daily recalls that the chairman of the Slovene parliament's foreign policy committee Jelko Kacin has announced the drawing up of a glossary of terms to be discussed at a meeting between Slovene and Croatian legal experts in Ljubljana, scheduled to take place on September 16. Ljubljana's "Delo" daily says that Croatia's plans to declare an economic zone in the Adriatic is part of a planetary fight for natural resources. "That fight has already begun, but Slovenia is not aware of it and sees the entire matter through the post-Yugoslav succession logic. It is true that in Yugoslavia Slovenia had access to the open sea and has the right to keep it, but it is also true that Croats have the right to travel via Slovenia and drink water from the Sava river although the river springs in Slovenia... Playing such tricks is certainly not allowed, such matters are regulated by international conventions, but Croatia, too, should stop to think what it can allow itself to do in the Adriatic," says Delo commentator Boris Jez. (hina) rml