SLOVENE REPS DISCUSS INDEMNITY TO CROATIAN CLIENTS

LJUBLJANA, Jan 28 (Hina) - Members of a Slovene parliamentary delegation which participated in last week's talks with a Council of Europe rapporteur, Erik Juergens, about the savings of former clients of the Ljubljanska Banka Zagreb, are surprised with the negative reactions their idea of creating a "special fund" for indemnifying the clients has met with in Croatia. The head of the Slovene delegation to the Council of Europe, Roman Jakic, a member of the Liberal Democrats (LDS) of Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek, told the Slovene Radio that if the idea was accepted, Slovenia could participate in the fund, but recalled Ljubljana's stance that in its basics, the issue concerned a succession problem which occurred after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. A delegation member, Miha Brejc, told the Slovene Radio that the country's banking circles were speaking about some 150 million euros as a possible amount with which Slovenia should participate in the fund, however the fund was not Slovenia's exclusive responsibility, since the former federation guaranteed for the savings deposits, while the then Yugoslav legislature did not envisage the possibility of bankruptcy, not even in cases when the bank could not return the deposits of its clients. (hina) lml sb