SLOVENE PRESS COMMENTS ON DRNOVSEK'S RESPONSE TO RACAN

LJUBLJANA, Sept 5 (Hina) - Slovene Premier Janez Drnovsek, who stands the best chances of winning the coming presidential election, has reacted well and timely to the proposal which his Croatian counterpart Ivica Racan gave pertaining to the settlement of open bilateral issues. This is the prevailing remark in the Slovene press on Thursday with regard to Drnovsek's news conference on the Ljubljana-Zagreb relations. #L# "Drnovsek responded with restraint to Racan's proposal that the border issue be settled through arbitration, given that Slovenia still prefers bilateral agreement and the Slovene government has the negotiating basis only for the initialled border agreement," the daily "Delo" said. The daily points to Drnovsek's observation that it will be necessary to solve the fishing incidents off Savudrija and the Jozko Joras case, regardless of the fact whether the two sides will continue talking about the bilateral agreement, its freezing or arbitration. To date Slovenia has supported Croatia on the international scene, and it does not want to see anything disturb this constructive position, the leading daily added. A columnist of "Delo", Sasa Vidmajer, wrote in a special commentary that with his news conference on Wednesday, PM Drnovsek had pulled the strings of the foreign policy together and "acted in a masterly manner". His cold-mannered message to Croatians was: either defusion or freezing. Our Premier acted and proved his infallibility in a masterly manner, the columnist asserted. "Drnovsek has shown how much Slovene foreign ministers are of no use, and he enjoys the situation like the one in which the Italian Premier Berlusconi is, being both the premier and foreign minister," she added. (hina) ms sb