CROATIAN DEPUTY PM AND UN OFFICIALS DISCUSS WOMEN'S POSITION

NEW YORK, June 7 (Hina) - A Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Zeljka Antunovic on Tuesday conducted talks with UN officials in charge of women's rights. Her meeting with UN Secretary-General's aide Angela King and the director of the UN section for women, Yakin Erturk, was held in New York where the UN General Assembly is holding an extraordinary session on the position and rights of women. Antunovic notified King and Erturk of the political, legal, social and economic position of women in Croatia. She also talked to them about the work of the Government's commission in charge of the equality between sexes. The Croatian PM said a ratio of women in the participation in the political life had increased and cited the data on a rise in the number of female MPs in the Sabor. She added that although Croatia was ahead of other countries in the region in this matter, Zagreb would like to continue this trend and reach standards of Scandinavian states. Antunovic spoke of the number and importance of the non- governmental organisations that tackle women's issues and said the Croatian Government was willing to further the cooperation with them. Angela King stressed the importance of Croatia's signing of an additional protocol to the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. King also congratulated on the appointment of a Croatian representative, Dubravka Simonovic, to the post of the chairwomen of the UN Economic and Social Council's commission for women's position. (hina) mm ms