SLOVENIA SENDS NEW NOTE TO CROATIA ABOUT FISHING ZONE IN ADRIATIC

LJUBLJANA, Dec 1 (Hina) - In its new note to Croatia, the Slovene Foreign Ministry on Monday reiterated Ljubljana's standpoints regarding Croatia's decision to proclaim an ecological and fishing zone in the Adriatic and the dispute about the sea border. #L# "We reject statements that Slovenia opposes bilateral dialogue on a high political level because in our note of November 7 we stressed that, considering the complexity of the problem, Slovenia advocates multilateral negotiations among all interested coastal countries in the Adriatic," the Slovene ministry said in the note. The ministry reiterated that Croatia's decision to proclaim the zone was a unilateral act which violated Croatia's international commitments and prejudged the sea border. The Slovene ministry again warned Croatia that Slovenia had territorial access to the open sea and the right to proclaim its own economic or protected ecological and fishing zone, because Slovenia, as one of the coastal republics, had those rights in the former Yugoslavia. The note said that after Slovenia gained independence, it took over the rights and commitments regarding the territorial sea, which until then it exercised together with the other federal units of the former country. Slovenia thus preserved the already existing jurisdiction over Piran Bay and direct territorial access to the open sea, read the note. Slovenia cited a border agreement drafted by two countries' prime ministers -- Ivica Racan and Janez Drnovsek. Slovenia refuted Croatia's statements that it could not get access to the open sea. In conclusion, the ministry said that in principle Slovenia did not refuse any of the possible peaceful solution to the two countries' open issues, but expected from such a solution to consider the level of the two countries' agreements to date. (hina) it