CURRENT CROATIAN-BOSNIAN TIES CAN AND SHOULD BE BETTER - ZORIC

SARAJEVO, April 28 (Hina) - The current relations between Bosnia- Herzegovina and Croatia cannot be described as bad but they can and should be better, Croatia's Ambassador in Sarajevo, Damir Zoric, said in an interview with the daily "Dnevni Avaz" published in the Bosnian capital. He said the ties between the two countries were too frequently observed through the prism of unsettled issues. "It is particularly important that both Croatia and Bosnia are oriented to solving unsettled issues in a calm, civilised manner," Zoric said in the interview released by Wednesday's issue of the paper. He said his country has a similar interest in cooperating with both Bosnian entities - the Croat-Moslem Federation and the Serb entity- although the architecture of peace processes has anticipated more intensified cooperation with the Bosnian federation. The ambassador announced the opening of Croatia's consulate- general in Banja Luka, the biggest town in the Serb republic, in near future and added such a move would complete Croatia's diplomatic-consular net in Bosnia. We are in Croatia aware that anything what has been agreed upon and signed, sometimes under the sponsorship of the international community, must be really implemented. Besides, we are aware that there cannot be separate conducts, but that the cooperation is necessary in order to accomplish mutual interest, Zoric said. He recalled that Moslem (Bosniak) senior officials had also declared themselves to be in favour of the signed agreement on special relations, but the implementation of the deal was still encountering hurdles. (hina) ms