CROATIAN PRESIDENT MEETS HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER IN BUDAPEST

BUDAPEST, Sept 30 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic met Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy in Budapest on Tuesday for talks on overall cooperation between the two countries and possibilities of further development. #L# "We have agreed that we have common interests and similar strategic goals," Mesic told reporters after the meeting. He expressed satisfaction with the present level of cooperation between the two countries. Speaking on the eve of his visit to Pecs, which has the largest Croatian community in Hungary, Mesic said that the Croats were very well organised there and were preserving Croatian tradition. Representatives of the Hungarian government office for minorities and the Croatian self-government body in Hungary signed an agreement on Tuesday under which the Hungarian government would earmark more than 400,000 euros for the renovation of a building on the Croatian Adriatic island of Pag, where members of the Croatian minority in Hungary and the Hungarian minority in Croatia would study the Croatian and Hungarian languages. During a ceremony at the Croatian Embassy in Budapest, Mesic presented Istvan Nyomarkay with a high state decoration for his outstanding contribution to the promotion of cooperation between the universities of Zagreb and Budapest in philology and for the promotion of Croatian language and literature studies in Hungary. Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszy was presented with a high state decoration for his outstanding contribution to the development of relations between Croatia and Hungary, particularly the improvement of the status of minorities in both countries. (hina) vm sb