MESIC AND KUCAN EXPRESS SATISFACTION WITH CRO-SLOVENE AGREEMENT

UMAG, July 22 (Hina) - Croatian and Slovene Presidents Stipe Mesic and Milan Kucan on Sunday expressed satisfaction with the initialling of an agreement between Zagreb and Ljubljana. Mesic told reporters the talks tackled the situation in the region. "We all have same strategic goals - to join the European Union and live better. We have already, on several occasions, said that open Croatian-Slovene issues can be solved with good will, because if we don't solve them ourselves, those who will come after us will," Mesic said, adding Croatia's strategic goal was to border with Italy while Slovenia wanted an access to open sea. Slovene President Kucan said conditions had been created for the solving of open issues which had been burdening relations between Croatia and Slovenia. "In this case, both countries showed great maturity. It was about time that those problems be solved. Until now, the governments were not ready to take responsibility regarding the solving of problems and issues between Croatia and Slovenia. Therefore, both countries deserve recognition," Kucan stressed. He reminded the two countries had tried to solve open issues in 1991, 1992 and 1995, but without results. According to the Slovene President, the Croatian and Slovene governments are only ahead of a great job, namely to gain public's support for presenting the significance of the agreement. "The agreement is the best ticket for Croatia's and Slovenia's joining the European Union," said Kucan. Later this evening, Mesic and Kucan, along with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, will attend the finals of the ATP Tour in Umag, "Croatia Open. (hina) it