NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SDP, HSLS - SAY RACAN, BUDISA

ZAGREB, July 19 (Hina) - The presidents of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) told reporters on Wednesday there were no significant differences between their two parties, confirming a strong commitment to preserve the ruling coalition stable.#L# "We have agreed there are no significant oscillations in relation to our coalition strategy of two years ago," SDP's Ivica Racan, the Prime Minister, told a joint news conference in Zagreb. He announced the two parties' leaderships would meet towards the end of August and not sooner because mutual problems were minor ones. "Because there are no conceptual differences between our parties, the HSLS never even considered some alternative position for itself," said Budisa. He assessed as successful the government's work thus far, pointing out the government's failure would be HSLS' failure as well. The two parties are chief partners in the government's ruling six-party coalition. Budisa announced the SDP and the HSLS would run in coalition for elections for parliament's House of Counties in 2001. (hina) ha