CROAT PRESIDENT SAYS BUSH ENCOURAGED CROATIA, ALBANIA, MACEDONIA

PRAGUE, Nov 22 (Hina) - At their meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in Prague on Friday, Croatia, Macedonia, and Albania were encouraged after being left out of the latest NATO expansion wave, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said in the Czech capital on Friday. #L# "He (Bush) encouraged us by saying we have to do what is ahead of us at this moment," Mesic told Croatian reporters. "The meeting with Bush was brief. We talked about where Croatia and the countries which did not join NATO in the Prague package are right now," he said. Mesic, Macedonia's President Boris Trajkovski and Albania's Alfred Moisiu met with the U.S. head of state earlier today as the leaders of the countries which were not invited to join the alliance yesterday but which committed to bolstering mutual cooperation in their bids to draw closer to Euro-Atlantic integration. The Bush meeting supported the Zagreb-Skopje-Tirana cooperation, Mesic said, but added Macedonia and Albania were not the only countries Croatia had to cooperate with. "We have to cooperate with our neighbours, those near us as well as with those which are not in Europe," he stated. Mesic asserted Croatia had meet the majority of the criteria required for admission to NATO and the European Union, but that there remained a few Croatia was still working on, particularly the protection of national minorities, private property, and refugee return safety. The Croatian leader is in Prague attending a NATO and Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council two-day summit which began yesterday. Asked to comment on the fact that the final statement of the summit stated Croatia must cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague on its path to NATO, Mesic said, "We have to implement our international commitments and we cannot apply laws selectively. The statement simultaneously supports and cautions us". (hina) ha