TOMCIC: CRO-SLOVENE BORDER DEAL CAN'T BE SUPPORTED BY PARLIAMENT

SPLIT, Oct 7 (Hina) - Zlatko Tomcic, Sabor Speaker and the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) president, has said it is obvious that at the present the initialled Croatian-Slovene border agreement cannot obtain a majority of votes in the Croatian parliament. The deal is, nevertheless, on the agenda of the coming second parliamentary session this autumn, and MPs will discuss the document unless the government withdraws its motion. This does not mean that plans for the development of good neighbourly relations with Slovenia are abandoned, but the fact is that the agreement is almost unanimously rejected in the Croatian public and, on the other hand, very well accepted by most Slovene citizens and politicians, Tomcic said in his interview to Sunday's issue of the Slobodna Dalmacija daily. He said the arbitration in the dispute remained possible, if Ljubljana agreed to such a move. Asked to comment on Slovene Premier Janez Drnovsek's assertion that the fact that the agreement was initialled was actually a restrictive factor for the arbitration, Tomcic answered that the initialling of the document did not bind any party. The initialling is only the proof that the documents are identical in both languages and that the text is fully harmonised by the two negotiating teams, Sabor Speaker explained. Only the signature of premiers can create such an obligation about which Drnovsek has spoken, but there is no signature, Tomcic added. (hina) ms