CROATIA & SLOVENIA FAIL TO REACH FULL AGREEMENT ON LAND BORDER

BEZANEC, Jan 12 (Hina) - Croatian and Slovene officials on Monday failed to reach a full agreement on the remaining 0.9 per cent of the disputable land border. Talks on that issue will continue in Slovenia in the first half of February. "As regards the land border, we remain by our earlier statement that we have agreed on 99.1 per cent of the land border", Croatia's Foreign Minister Mate Granic said after the talks in Bezanec castle, 50 km northwest of Zagreb. Certain rapprochement has been achieved as regards the remaining 0.9 per cent of the disputable border section. The two delegations, led by Granic and his counterpart Boris Frlec, today tried to resolve the contentious per cent of land border and the sea border between the two countries. Today's talks were the continuation of talks held in Strmol near the Slovene capital of Ljubljana in November last year. Granic said that progress also has been made as regards a temporary solution for Piran Bay. The next meeting will try to resolve that issue completely, he said. The Croatian foreign minister announced the possibility of seeking advice from the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for Law of the Sea if no progress is made regarding the permanent solution to that problem. The basis for the solution of the sensitive border issue was "the general principle that no one either gives or takes anything from anyone", said the Slovene Foreign Minister. Frlec added the meeting agreed that Piran Bay was an integral sea territory which was being jointly cared for both in economic and environmental aspects. Croatia's Granic reiterated in the end that today's talks were based on three principles. The first principle excludes the existence of mutual territorial pretensions, the second sets as the starting point in determining the land border the situation on June 25, 1991, and according to the third principle, the sea border had never been determined. (hina) mm rml