STRONGEST OPPOSITION PARTY REACTS TO PM'S PRESS CONFERENCE

ZAGREB, July 26 (Hina) - Croatia's strongest opposition party on Wednesday dismissed the prime minister's statement that those who will not endorse a recently initialled border agreement with neighbouring Slovenia are acting against national interests. "The opposite is correct," the president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said in a statement issued following PM Ivica Racan's press conference of Wednesday. According to Ivo Sanader, Croatia's foreign policy is becoming the government's weakest point along a poor economic and social policy. The statement says that neither Racan nor anybody else from the government have explained what Croatia gains if it cedes part of its territorial waters to Slovenia. The HDZ maintains that if the two sides cannot agree on borders, contentious issues should be tackled by international arbitration. Sanader criticised the government for quietly dissolving a state commission for borders "which worked well," demanding an explanation. According to the HDZ, the government disclosed through unofficial channels that the border agreement with Slovenia is on the line of a Croatia-Italy-Slovenia agreement on the navigation regime and entry and exit corridors in the northern Adriatic. The statement says the two things are not related and the government is obscuring facts. Sanader concluded by saying the unilateral and unexplained yielding in issues of national interest were becoming the chief principle in the government's work. (hina) ha