SLOVENIA WANTS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN KIND

LJUBLJANA, June 20 (Hina) - Slovenia today applauded the European concept of sustainable development adopted at a member meeting in Goeteborg, but holds that in ecology issues an agreement should be reached with the United States, despite the opposition of President Bush's administration to the standards of the Kyoto protocol on the emission of gases causing the greenhouse effect. At a session of the Slovene government's council for sustainable development, Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek said he felt that Bush would not change his views of the Kyoto agreement, but was offering alternate solutions, although only global agreements made any sense in environment protection. "At Saturday's summit in Slovenia I opened the issue during talks with Bush, and asked him to give a signal to Europe and th world that he would not give up from efforts to protect the environment. However, I believe he will not change his views, but the USA is asking for activities outside of the Kyoto protocol," Drnovsek said. Slovenia is advocating a sustainable development by the EU concept, Drnovsek said, adding that this development concept, along with production, also considers other factors such as balance, permanence and preservation, ecology and health. (hina) lml sb