DELEGATION HAPPY WITH RESULTS OF BRUSSELS DONORS' CONFERENCE

BRUSSELS, March 30 (Hina) - The financial conference in Brussels has yielded a good result, Croatia's Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said at the end of the two-day conference on Thursday, before returning to Zagreb.#L# "The delegation which here represented the Croatian government may return to Zagreb satisfied," Picula told Croatian reporters in Brussels, adding the conference had been "successful both in the political and the financial sense, which are inseparable." More than EUR2.4 billion were collected at the funding conference for the financing of projects of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe's three task forces, representatives of the European Commission and the World Bank said at the end of the conference. The initially planned amount was EUR1.8 billion. The collected sum surpassed all expectations, Stability Pact coordinator Bodo Hombach said at the end of the conference. Part of the funds promised for the financing of 35 infrastructure projects and other programmes are non-repayable, while part are loans without any or with very favourable interest. More details will be announced in the coming days. Minister Picula told reporters the projects motioned in the preliminary stage of the conference for realisation in Croatia had been covered entirely. "Those five, six quick-start projects weigh about US$135 million. They refer to highways, environmental protection, the rebuilding of railroads, mine-clearing projects, and other," the minister said. "We are especially happy about the fact that our programme for the return of Croatian citizens who left the country and want to return was also well received," Picula said speaking about a programme Croatia developed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the return of more than 15,000 refugees from Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Picula said the programme was "politically okayed (at the Brussels conference) and initial funds for it do exist. We also have strong guarantees that all funds will be collected during implementation." Also "well-received", Picula said, was a programme on the collection of funds for a study on the viability of an Adriatic- Ionian highway project, which Croatia's foreign minister put forward on behalf of a group of countries neighbouring Croatia. "I believe we could collect during April the EUR2 million necessary to join the drafting of the study," Picula said. (hina) ha jn