MESIC AND CRO AIR FORCE'S PLANES AT CELEBRATION OF SLOVENIA'S INDEPENDENCE DAY

LJUBLJANA, June 25 - On the occasion of its Independence Day (June 25), Slovenia organised an air display for over 150 planes and helicopters from 16 countries, including Croatian Air Force's MIG aircraft, at the airport of Cerklje Ob Krka on Sunday.#L# Croatian President Stjepan Mesic also attended the ceremonial airmeet, as a guest of Slovene head of state Milan Kucan. Presidents Mesic and Kucan discussed the bilateral relations and the situation in the region. After the talks, Kucan said the visit of Croatian President testified to the fact that Croatian-Slovene relation had entered a new stage and added that each meeting with Croatian head of state was valuable as it opened possibilities for new initiatives in attempts to settle open issues between the two neighbouring countries. Commenting on rumours that there could be a "swap" in the solutions for the Bay of Piran and roads via Slovenia, President Mesic described such speculations as inappropriate. Mesic said Croatia could understand Slovenia's interest in the access to the open sea but Croatia's interest in keeping the border with Italy is also clear. Kucan was interested in the course of Saturday's talks between Mesic and Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic and their opinion on the construction of the Adriatic-Ionian motorway as this road direction was in the Slovene interest as well. Commenting on French President Jacques Chirac's initiative for conferring a conference of the summit of western Balkans and the European Union, Kucan described it as "an interesting idea for achieving a permanent peace in the region (south-east Europe)", but only after the idea became more concrete, Slovenia could say how it would participate in such summit, he explained. In this context Mesic said any fear about possible reinstitution of Yugoslavia was groundless. (hina) ms