AGREEMENT ON SPECIAL RELATIONS TO BE RATIFIED WITHIN 10 DAYS - OHR

SARAJEVO, May 6 (Hina) - The Office of the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina (OHR) expects the ratification process for the Agreement on Special Relations between Croatia and the Bosnian Federation to be finalised within ten days, OHR spokesman James Ferguson said in Sarajevo on Thursday. The Bosnian Federation Parliament House of Peoples last week did not ratify the agreement and another session was announced to be held on May 6. Ferguson said Sarajevo media was false in saying the session had been postponed because the OHR had not submitted a legal interpretation of the ratification of annexes to the Agreement on time. It was agreed earlier with the president of the House that the session would not take place for logistic reasons, Ferguson said. He stressed talks on the issue would continue despite the postponement of the parliament session. We expect the Agreement to be ratified by the Bosnian Federation Parliament within the next ten days, he said. The ratification of the Agreement on Special Relations between Croatia and the Bosnian Federation, signed on November 22, 1998, was brought into question by a condition set by the Bosniak (Moslem) side that the Agreement must include a decision by which annexes, as key parts of the document, will not be accepted without the prior consent of the Parliament. The Croat party in the Croat-Moslem entity of the Bosnian Federation insists on an unconditional adoption of the document such as it had been signed by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and the then President and Vice-President of the Bosnian Federation, Ejup Ganic and Vladimir Soljic, and ratified by the Croatian National Parliament. (hina) lml