NEGOTIATIONS ON PROPERTY SUCCESSION OF FORMER YU TO BE HELD IN JAN

ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - A new round of talks on the division of the former Yugoslavia's property is to be held in Brussels on January 26 with an aim to reach an agreement on which solution has been blocked by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for a long time, the head of the Croatian Government's Office for Succession, Bozo Marendic, told Hina in Zagreb on Friday. The last round of the negotiations, held in mid-November of 1998, had come to a stalemate, because FRY continued to refuse a draft of the division of property of the former Yugoslavia, which had been accepted by all other successor states - Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia- Herzegovina, and Macedonia. Arbitration or political pressure by the Security Council on FRY has been mentioned as a possible solution, should an agreement not be reached in this round of negotiations. The most significant undivided property, which is a contentious issue amongst the four successor countries, includes monetary gold of the former state, amounting to US$600 million, foreign exchange reserves which in 1991 amounted to about US$6 billion, real estate and the former federation's claims to foreign countries. (hina) it/lml