STATUS OF PLOCE PORT STILL FAR FROM SOLUTION

SARAJEVO, Jan 5 (Hina) - The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Zlatko Lagumdzija, has dismissed claims on the start of talks which should resolve a dispute between Bosnia and Croatia regarding the management of the Ploce port. In a statement carried on Saturday by the Sarajevo-based daily Oslobodjenje, Lagumdzija said neither he nor anyone else had been involved on behalf of the Council of Ministers in talks on changing the contract on the Ploce port. He refused, however, to comment on a statement made yesterday by Croatia's Ambassador to Bosnia, Josip Vrbosic. According to Vrbosic, some members of the BH Council of Ministers have demonstrated readiness to support the drawing up of an annex to the Ploce port contract, which would practically abolish the post of the seventh member of the port's management board, who was to be a foreign national and mediate in disputes between Croatian and Bosnian members of the board. Vrbosic's statement was indirectly confirmed by Bosnia's Ambassador to Croatia, Zlatko Dizdarevic, although he insisted on the fact that the Ploce port contract had to be ratified by the Croatian parliament first and then amended to the mutual satisfaction of both sides. Vrbosic sticks by his statement, although he does not want to identify the members of the Council of Ministers with whom he spoke. He also added that the Croatian side did not want mediation powers in case of possible disputes to be transferred, for example, to the international court on maritime law in Hamburg. Bosnia's Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Jadranko Prlic has strongly opposed possible changes to the Ploce port contract. Prlic was one of the key figures in the drawing up of the contract in 1998 in his capacity as the country's foreign minister. (hina) sb rml