DC LEADER BELIEVES THAT CROATIA'S POSITION HAS WORSENED

ZAGREB, Sept 26 (Hina) - Democratic Centre (DC) leader Mate Granic has described Croatia's current international position as much worse than last year, and expressed fear that Croatia's application for the candidature for EU membership has been brought into question. #L# At the same time efforts to push Croatia into a tighter regional framework have been intensified, Granic told a news conference on Friday. As regards its intentions to declare an exclusive economic zone in the Adriatic "the government has kicked the ball through its own goal," he said. If in the coming twenty days the government fails to assure the UN war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Croatia has done all it could do to solve the problem of the fugitive general Ante Gotovina, wanted by the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Great Britain will not ratify the Croatia-EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) and the Netherlands will not notify it, Granic said. The leader of the parliamentary opposition party maintains that a recent interview with Gen. Gotovina published in a Croatian weekly has considerably aggravated the position of the country's president (Stjepan Mesic) and premier (Ivica Racan) to persuade the ICTY chief prosecutor to believe that they are not in touch with Gotovina, who has been on the run for two years. Granic thinks that Great Britain will postpone a decision on the SAA until the completion of parliamentary elections and the establishment of new authorities in Croatia. "This will render the situation for the new government more difficult, as Croatia's chances for being in a package together with Romania and Bulgaria as candidates for EU membership have lessened in relation to the situation six months ago," he said. (hina) ms