CROATIAN PM IN FAVOUR OF RE-EXAMINATION OF STABILITY PACT

ANKARA, Nov 7 (Hina) - The Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe and its contents should be re-examined, Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on Monday in Ankara where he was paying a two-day official visit. After he held a news conference with his Turkish counterpart Bulent Ecevit, Racan told Croatian journalists that during his talks with premiers of a few member-states of the Stability Pact he arrived at the conclusion that "the time is now ripe for considering what point we have reached in the elaboration of the Pact." According to Croatian PM, the Pact's objectives should be redefined in relation to the fact that the Pact appeared at the time while Slobodan Milosevic ruled Serbia and now the question poses itself how the Pact should act in the wake Milosevic's fall. The second issue is about the expectations from the Pact and its real abilities. Racan said it was necessary to refute any idea about the Pact's being an implicit substitution for faster approach of some countries to the European Union. He announced that he together with Bulgaria's Premier Ivan Kostov might soon present an initiative for stirring up a discussion on this matter. Real analyses of the Pact would be useful both to the Pact's and EU member-countries, Croatian PM added. It is not enough to see the Pact as an agency that facilitate the granting of loans to some countries, including Croatia, Racan stressed concluding that Zagreb would continue to support the Pact provided that it adjusted itself to the current situation. On Monday Racan held talks with Turkey's Premier Ecevit and was received by President Ahmet Sezer. On Tuesday Racan and other Croatian officials who are accompanying him on this two-day visit to Turkey will tour Istanbul. Croatian Premier is expected to hold a speech at the Chamber of Trade and after that he will go sightseeing. (hina) ms