OFFICIAL: SLOVENIA, CROATIA HAVE NO ALTERNATIVE TO GOOD RELATIONS

SPLIT, Aug 14 (Hina) - The president of the opposition's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Ivo Sanader, said on Wednesday that Croatia and Slovenia had no alternative other than good neighbourly relations. He urged Slovene Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek not to allow the incidents in Piran Bay to escalate. #L# Sanader levelled a sharp criticism at Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan for signing an agreement with Slovenia over a year ago that no one in Croatia would adopt. He claimed this was why the deal was not ratified in the Croatian parliament. The HDZ proposes an urgent meeting at the highest level between Slovenia and Croatia to discuss international arbitration to resolve the Piran Bay border issues. Sanader believes that international arbitration is the only way to resolve the problem, and that any decision made must be accepted by both sides. The HDZ president further said that Croatia should consider all the aspects of a US offer to sign a bilateral agreement on the non- extradition of US citizens to the International Criminal Court. He added that the HDZ understood the American initiative because he saw at The Hague that indictments and trials could be manipulated with. Responding to questions about a new political party that Ivic Pasalic, who was ousted from the HDZ, is believed to be founding, Sanader said that there were already 80 parties and "one more or less would not mean anything." He noted that the HDZ's reputation was significantly higher since Pasalic's exclusion, and that only an insignificant number of HDZ MPs would transfer to Pasalic's party if he did found it. Sanader protested against the editorial policies of news programmes on Croatian Television, which he said ignored the HDZ's standpoints. He claimed that the programme should not become a bulletin for Racan's Social Democratic Party. (hina) sp ha