RACAN: COALITION'S PERSPECTIVE WILL DEPEND ON HSLS'S DECISION

ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - The perspective of the ruling five-party coalition will depend on whether the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) would, without an agreement among its coalition partners, decide on the withdrawal of its people from the government, Croatian Prime Minister and president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Ivica Racan, said during a pause of Monday's several- hour meeting of the five party leaders. Racan said all coalition partners opposed early elections. The future of the coalition greatly depends on the decision of the HSLS's Executive Council on the possible withdrawing of the party's ministers from the government. He stressed he had nothing against every party independently deciding on withdrawing its ministers, but it was important for the government to know why this is done. "If a party withdraws somebody who contributed to the government's work, that means that there are programme conflicts between the party and the government, and it should be discussed," Racan said. He recalled that the coalition agreement forbade parties from unilaterally withdrawing ministers. If a party does do so, the other parties have the right to independently decide how to react to the situation. The five party leaders today agreed on an improvement in the work of the coalition, which, according to Racan, is in line with the government's conclusions on its work and relations with the parliament. They also agreed that the parties' leaderships be informed about possible changes to the coalition agreement. (hina) lml