CROATIAN MPS MEET THEIR ALBANIAN COUNTERPARTS

TIRANA, Feb 28 (Hina) - The situation in Albania, the crisis in Kosovo and the relations between Croatia and Albania were main topics of the talks held between Albanian members of parliament and their Croatian counterparts in Tirana on Sunday. Yesterday, a delegation of the Croatian parliamentary foreign affairs committee, led by the committee's head, Zarko Domljan, arrived in Tirana for a three-day visit, at an invitation of Albania's parliamentary foreign policy committee's head, Sabri Godo. Representatives of six Albanian parliamentary parties, who met Croatian MPs, agreed that the situation in Albania was unsafe and unstable. The fight against corruption has not yielded visible results, and the country has not been put on the path to the economic progress, a representative of the Albanian Republican Party complained. Unfortunately, Albania is being used for the international smuggling of people, drugs and arms via its territory, warned a Social Democrat whose party is a member of the ruling coalition. During Sunday's talks, a deputy of the Nationalist Party, said his country had bravely joined a process of democratisation in 1992, but these efforts were blocked by 1997 elections, according to him. The opposition MP held that only new elections could help the country to get out of the current situation. The head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Sabri Godo, voiced hope that the visit of Croatian MPs might help Albanians and proposed further contacts for the exchange of opinions between the deputies of the two parliaments. (hina) ms