CROATIA CANCELS NEGOTIATION ON PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH ITALY

ZAGREB, Oct 25 (Hina) - Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Vesna Cvjetkovic Kurelec has announced Croatia is cancelling all further talks with Italy on an agreement on partnership and friendship the two countries have been negotiating for nine years, the Croatian Television reported Thursday evening. Croatia has decided to cancel the negotiations because of the decision of Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to bestow a decoration for war merits on the World War II Italian authorities of Zadar "as an Italian town which suffered the most damage in allies' shelling in 1943". According to Rome's daily Il Piccolo, the decoration was to be handed to representatives of Italian refugees from Zadar on November 13, but the process was postponed due to intervention by the Croatian diplomacy. The signing of the bilateral partnership and friendship agreement, expected to be signed as soon as next week, will be slowed down, the Croatian Radio and Television said. After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire and in line with the Rapal Agreement, Zadar was given to Italy after WWI as its 94th province. The town was under Italian fascist rule until capitulation in 1943. It was heavily shelled during attacks by the allies two months after Italy capitulated and declared war on Germany. (hina) lml