WHILE ITALIAN AUTHORITIES KEEP QUIET MEDIA PAY GREAT ATTENTION TO 'ZADAR CASE'

ROME, Oct 28 (Hina) - While the Italian authorities have not yet commented on "the Zadar case", Italian daily "Corriere della Sera" on Sunday ran an article headlined "Zagreb Blocks Agreement With Italy" and daily "Repubblica" in an article headlined "Zadar, Fight Over One Medal" writes about a small diplomatic war between Zagreb and Rome in which the Italian diplomacy does not want to take part. The seat of the Italian Foreign Ministry has not commented on the diplomatic incident caused by the decision of the Italian president to confer a gold medal for war merits on the 1943 Italian government of Zadar due to the suffering of the town during World War II shellings by the Allies. The Italian press also wrote about Zagreb's decision to discontinue talks on a cooperation and partnership agreement between the two countries, speculating Croatia could withdraw its Ambassador should Italy refuse to change its decision in "the Zadar case". "Corriere della Sera" explained the reasons why Croatia was behaving that way and stated that Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi should have presented a gold medal for war merits on Ottavio Missoni, as the mayor of "The Free Town of Zadar" in exile, after an Italian Defence Ministry procedure. However, Zadar belongs to Croatia today and Croatia did not receive this well, "Corriere della Sera" wrote. According to "Corriere della Sera", the seat of the Italian Foreign Ministry has not yet commented on the incident due to "a sensitive moment" and because it had nothing to do with the decision. Croatia is scheduled to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union in Brussels tomorrow. It has been assumed that Croatia would sign the cooperation and partnership agreement with Italy at the same time. (hina) it sb