CROATIA-IREALND RELATIONS EXTREMELY GOOD - OFFICIAL

ZAGREB, Sept 15 (Hina) - Ireland and Croatia are two small countries that have a shared history and culture in many ways and extremely good relations, Croatian parliament president Zlatko Tomcic and the president of the Irish House of Representatives, Rory O'Hanlon, said after talks in Zagreb on Monday. #L# O'Hanlon is officially visiting Croatia on Sept 12-16 at Tomcic's invitation. O'Hanlon and Tomcic talked about the European Union, its future enlargement and the possibility of Croatia's gaining candidate status for EU membership as early as the first half of next year. The central topic of the talks were the countries' economic and political relations. "Relations between Ireland and Croatia are extremely good," said the Irish official reiterating his country's support to Croatia's joining the European Union. "Indeed, we were one of the first countries to ratify the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (between Croatia and the EU)," O'Honlan said. The Croatian parliament head said that there were no open issues between the two countries. "Ireland is Croatia's friend," said Tomcic and expressed a wish for Croatia to gain EU candidate status during Ireland's chair of the EU. Later today, the Irish official is expected to hold talks with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, Prime Minister Ivica Racan and Foreign Minister Tonino Picula. (hina) it