SIMONOVIC SAYS CROATIA TO HOLD TALKS WITH SLOVENIA IN GOOD FAITH

ZAGREB, Sept 15 (Hina) - Croatia is going to the meeting with Slovenia in "good faith" and is ready to do all it can to improve coordination of activities with regard to the expansion of jurisdiction in the Adriatic, Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Simonovic told Hina on Monday. #L# Croatia's and Slovenia's experts will meet in Slovenia's Smarjeske Toplice on Tuesday to discuss Croatia's plans to declare an economic zone in the Adriatic. Croatia proposed that the meeting be held at the level of deputy foreign ministers, however, Slovenia insisted that the meeting be held at the level of heads of the ministries' departments for international law. "We will attend the meeting in good faith and are ready to do all we can to achieve a good level of co-ordination of activities regarding the expansion of jurisdiction in the Adriatic," Simonovic said. "We believe that the environmental protection of the Adriatic is also important, and expanding jurisdiction should be a combination of efforts to protect the fish stock and the environment, which we are particularly interested in," said Simonovic reminding that in 1968 the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had signed an agreement on the epicontinental belt with Italy which resolved most of the issues regarding the sea bed. (hina) it rml