CRO. PARL. PRESIDENT, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MEET UNESCO DIRECTOR

ZAGREB, June 10 (Hina) - UNESCO's interest in creating permanent peace, stability, cooperation and coexistence among different cultures in the region of Southeast Europe is on the path that Croatia itself is endeavouring to achieve, Croatian Parliament President Zlatko Tomcic said on Monday following a meeting with the Director of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuuro. #L# In a statement to the press following the meeting, Tomcic expressed satisfaction that the UNESCO chief commenced his first official visit to Croatia in the parliament. Matsuuro will meet several ministers during his stay. "I believe these meetings will be an opportunity to once again take a look at the results of the conference (on Southeast Europe) held in April in Paris and that certain programmes will be made more concrete," Tomcic said. This refers to ten very concrete projects in the areas of communication, education, culture and a series of sub-projects within various institutions. Matsuura evaluated the meeting with Tomcic as exceptionally productive and interesting confirming that the talks related to the continuation of promoting cooperation between UNESCO and Croatia. We will mobilise all international resources available to us so that these projects can be implemented successfully in the future, Matsuuro said. Matsuuro also met with Deputy Prime Minister Drazen Budisa. The Government's public relations office sated that during the meeting, Budisa and Matsuuro talked about cooperation between UNESCO and Croatia and joint projects foreseen for the future including the Lonjsko polje, Dubrovnik and the preservations of Pag lace and the Glagolic transcripts. Budisa informed his guest of Croatia's participation in the reconstruction of the Mostar Old Bridge. "Croatia is interested in projects on education and international cultural cooperation with UNESCO", Budisa said. (hina) sp