MATE GRANIC SEEKS APOLOGY FROM RACAN AND PICULA

ZAGREB, April 19 (Hina) - Mate Granic on Wednesday requested Prime Minister Ivica Racan and Foreign Minister Tonino Picula to publicly apologise to him because of the Foreign Ministry's statement that the crime police were investigating the possibility of Granic's having abused his office as Croatia's former foreign minister. Granic, who is today the president of the Democratic Centre (DC) party, "most energetically" rejected the accusations at today's press conference. Croatian dailies published that the crime police are conducting an investigation on the basis of findings by the State Audit and anonymous reports, according to which Granic had built a house with money from the state budget, while he was Croatia's foreign minister. Granic said it was not by accident that such statements appeared ahead of the municipal elections in Zagreb, with polls showing a 10 percent rise in DC's popularity. Granic confirmed that the Interior Minister had told him the investigation was a routine check-up regarding the State Audit findings, as well as that an unnamed government official had unofficially told him the Foreign Ministry had made a clumsy and unfortunate statement. The former foreign minister rejected the possibility that the new authorities are using the media and secret services to libel individuals. (hina) mm rml