FOREIGN MINISTER: CROATIA EXPECTS TO JOIN NATO'S MAP IN MAY

SKOPJE, March 8 (Hina) - Croatia expects to join NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP) at a ministerial meeting of NATO member-countries in Reykjavik in May, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said in Skopje on Friday. Picula participated in a meeting of foreign ministers of ten central and eastern European countries aspiring to join NATO, gathered in the Vilnius Group (V10). "Since July 2001, Croatia has been included in 'intensified dialogue' with NATO...My country expects to join NATO's Membership Action Plan at the upcoming ministerial meeting in Reykjavik," Picula said at a plenary session of the ministerial meeting in Skopje. He said the Croatian government started extensive reforms, which should make the Croatian defence system compatible with NATO standards. In cooperation with NATO, Croatia initiated a plan to reduce the armed forces from the current 42,000 members to about 25,000 by 2004, Picula said. "The government proposed a new defence bill, which should be adopted in the parliament by the end of March," the foreign minister said. The national security and defence strategies should also be adopted in the near future, he added. In April 1999, NATO established the Membership Action Plan to help countries aspiring to join NATO implement reforms necessary for NATO membership. Originally nine candidate countries have joined the MAP and in May 2000 formed the Vilnius Group. The nine countries assumed an obligation to implement political and defence reforms in order to gain full NATO membership. Croatia became a full member of the Vilnius Group in May 2001. The Vilnius Group consists of Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Macedonia. (hina) it