VICE PREMIER: CROATIA WANTS NEW ARANGEMENT WITH IMF

ZAGREB, March 18 (Hina) - Croatian Vice Premier Slavko Linic said on Monday, after returning from a visit to the United States, that representatives of Croatia told the International Monetary Fund (IMF)they want a new arrangement between Croatia and the IMF. Negotiations could begin in the first week of May, according to Linic. Linic, Croatian Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac, and the governor of the Croatian National Bank, Zeljko Rohatinski, held talks with IMF leaders in Washington and provided them with the results Croatia achieved last year. At the end of this month the IMF committee of executive directors must make a final evaluation of the current stand-by arrangement with Croatia. Linic said he was satisfied with the talks in Washington. He said the current stand-by arrangement was more or less coming to an end. He said that all reforms and government activities in the past two years were satisfactory and Croatia's economy is more stable, after all, than in 2000. Linic said conditions for economic growth had been created. He said Croatian authorities want a new arrangement with the IMF, namely a short-term, year-long arrangement which would not be so stiff and detailed as the current stand-by arrangement. Croatia was granted the current stand-by arrangement in March 2001. It expires in May 2002. (hina) it sb