TALKS WITH ICTY PRESIDENT CONSTRUCTIVE - SAYS CRO JUSTICE MINISTER

THE HAGUE, Sept 15 (Hina) - Croatia and The Hague Tribunal today established a legal course to resolve the disputes which recently strained the Zagreb-The Hague relations, Croatian Justice Minister Zvonimir Separovic said in The Hague on Wednesday.#L# "The tension created in recent days has been significantly alleviated (...) We are on the best way to avoid every difficulty and to resume cooperation in the best possible way; we have protected Croatia's national interests," Separovic told the press following talks with Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. McDonald reported Croatia to the United Nations Security Council in late August for non-cooperation in "Flash" and "Storm", the military and police operations by which Croatia in 1995 liberated formerly Serb-occupied parts of its territory, and for the non- extradition of Mladen Naletilic Tuta. "(Today's) talks were in the sphere of legal issues which indicate the resolution of what has now been elevated to a political level before the Security Council," said Croatia's justice minister. Separovic declined to say which legal course had been found to resolve the matter, but did say a special statement would be released. "The talks were friendly, constructive, and serious, very promising. We have ways to continue and it will be proof that we have cooperated and that at this moment we will resolve the problems between the Tribunal and us, the prosecutor and us, and this will lead to positive results," Minister Separovic said. ICTY spokesman Jim Landale confirmed at a regular press conference that the Separovic-McDonald talks had been very positive and constructive. Neither side wanted to speak about the talks' topics. Landale said the documents submitted by Separovic on Tuesday, by which Croatia makes a case for its cooperation with the ICTY, were submitted to the Tribunal's registry due to the absence of the chief prosecutor and her deputy. Prosecution spokesman Paul Risley has so far made no comment on the contents of the submitted documents, including the White Book. (hina) ha