HISAR MEETING OF YUGOSLAVIA'S NEIGHBOUR-COUNTRIES ENDS

HISAR, Jan 22 (Hina) - The premiers of countries bordering with Yugoslavia, including Croatia's Zlatko Matesa, and NATO and European Union officials on Saturday ended an informal meeting which started in the Bulgarian resort of Hisar yesterday. The meeting focused on the assessment of the effectiveness of sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia and implementation of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe. Attending the meeting were the premiers of Croatia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia and Romania, as well as the EU's high representative for foreign policy and security Javier Solana and NATO's deputy secretary-general Sergio Balanzino. The premiers stressed the importance of joint activities of the region toward other countries, especially as regards the situation in Yugoslavia. They also emphasised the need for preparing well the next donors' conference of the Stability Pact, to take place in Brussels in March, because the Pact's future depends on the financial support the conference is expected to provide. The Pact's coordinator Bodo Hombach recently threatened to resign if funds required for implementation of the Pact were not secured. Croatia's Matesa said the Pact's funds should be directed into the private sector through joint projects of countries in the region and western countries. EU's representative Solana said the region's strategic goal was its integration into the EU. The next meeting of Yugoslavia's neighbours should be held in Hungary in March. (hina) rml