CRANS MONTANA: CRO. PRESIDENT HOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE

CRANS MONTANA, June 29 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said on Saturday the world was interested in the situation in the region Croatia was located in even though the war was over. The world is interested in the cooperation among the neighbours and the pace at which the region is approaching European integration, he said in Switzerland's Crans Montana. #L# Mesic spoke to reporters following the 13th Crans Montana business- political forum. Earlier today he met Swiss Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss, Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Mongolian President Natsagiin Bagabandi, Council of Europe Secretary-General Walter Schwimmer, and Montenegrin PM Filip Vujanovic. Mesic entered the main building of the congress centre where the news conference was held at the back due to a group of some 50 anti- globalist demonstrators who blocked the main entrance. Reporters asked Mesic for his view of Croatia in a world divided into globalists and anti-globalists. "Wealth and poverty are both globalised. The climate favouring the development of terrorism is created where poverty is globalised. Croatia advocates the promotion of the positive effects of globalisation as well as a joint fight against the negative ones. This protest in Crans Montana is far smaller than similar ones elsewhere, and I believe this is because here we are also discussing how to prevent the negative effects of globalisation," said Mesic. (hina) ha sb