SLOVENIA PRESENTS NOTE TO U.N. ON ITS STAND ON CROATIA'S FISHING ZONE

LJUBLJANA, Nov 8 (Hina) - Slovenia on Friday handed over to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan a diplomatic note, which is Ljubljana's response to Croatia's notification about its parliament's declaration of an ecological and fishing zone in the Adriatic, the Slovene foreign ministry reported in a press release on Friday evening. #L# According to the ministry, in its note Slovenia expounds its position that it has territorial access to the open sea and the right to proclaim its own exclusive economic zone or a protected ecological and fishing zone in the Adriatic, adding it has retained that right since the disintegration of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Under its constitutional charter on independence, Slovenia, as a sovereign Sate, has taken over rights and commitments regarding the territorial waters, and it has maintained "the existing Slovene jurisdiction over the Bay of Piran and the direct territorial access to the open sea," reads the press release from Ljubljana. The ministry reiterates Slovenia's stand that an 2001 agreement which the then Slovene Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek and his Croatian counterpart Ivica Racan initialled, took into account Slovenia's view on the demarcation of the border which envisages that the sea border would be defined in compliance with Article 15 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea with taking into consideration historical and other circumstances. Ljubljana notified Annan that the preservation of direct territorial access to the open sea was of the vital interest for Slovenia and that it did not accept unilateral moves of its neighbours which might prejudge the demarcation of the borderline. Besides the said note, Slovenia also handed over a copy of the note of 3 October which it sent to Zagreb protesting over Croatia's unilateral move to declare the ecological and fishing zone. (hina) ms