FOREIGN MINISTER PICULA HOLDS FOUR BILATERAL MEETINGS IN FLORENCE

FLORENCE, May 25 (Hina) - Croatia's Foreign Minister Tonino Picula held four bilateral meetings over Wednesday and Thursday on the margins of a ministerial conference of NATO and its Partnership for Peace programme's member-states. Minister Picula, who earlier today signed a document on Croatia's access to the NATO programme, held talks with the United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Britain's and Switzerland's foreign ministers Robin Cook and Joseph Deiss. On Wednesday he held talks with Danish colleague Helveg Petersen. Pointing out that the officials he met congratulated him on Croatia's access to Partnership for Peace and on what the Croatian government had done over the past three and a half months, Picula said all talks addressed two groups of issues. One is the issue of Croatia's immediate neighbourhood and the role Croatia can have in normalising and stabilising the situation, primarily in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. "We are willing to assume certain obligations which in time will lead to a normalisation in the situation in our neighbourhood. Here we will act in full agreement with the international community," the foreign minister said. The other group of issues refers to economic relations with each of the four countries whose foreign ministers Picula met. He announced more had to be done in Croatia to attract foreign investors and warrant the security of foreign capital. "We have conducted some initial talks and I believe that in the second part of this year, when in parliament we will work on amendments to the necessary laws, businessmen will increase investments in Croatia," Picula said. (hina) ha jn