CORRECTING "ITALY TO RATIFY CROATIA'S E.U. ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT"

ZAGREB, Oct 16 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament's public relations office issued a statement on Thursday saying that it had misquoted Croatia's ambassador to Italy, Drago Kraljevic, on the ratification by the Italian parliament on Friday of Croatia's stabilisation and association agreement with the European Union. According to the corrected statement, Kraljevic did not say that the Italian parliament would ratify the agreement on October 17, but that "there is a possibility that the Italian parliament will put the ratification of the stabilisation and association agreement on the agenda of its session on October 17, 2003". A corrected report follows: KRALJEVIC: SAA POSSIBLY BEFORE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT ON FRIDAY ZAGREB, Oct 16 (Hina) - There is a possibility that the Italian parliament will put the ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Croatia and the European Union on the agenda of its session on Friday October 17, the Croatian ambassador to Italy said in Zagreb on Thursday. #L# According to a statement from the Croatian parliament's public relations office, Ambassador Drago Kraljevic announced this at a meeting between Zdravko Tomac, parliament vice-president and chairman of the parliament's foreign policy committee, and Croatian ambassadors accredited to EU countries. The ambassadors said that the progress Croatia had made was noticed abroad, but stressed that Croatia "must avoid using issues of national interest for internal policy purposes because that is detrimental to its international position", the statement said. (hina) vm sb