THERE ARE NO FACTS TO URGE PERMANENT DISABILITY - ASSERTS PREMIER

ZAGREB, Nov 23 (Hina) - Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa on Tuesday said the government so far had no knowledge of facts which would point to the necessity of initiating proceedings for permanent disability of the President of the Republic to perform his duty. "There has been no new information which would urge us to do that. The fact is that the President's health has deteriorated, and due to the statement of the doctors' team, we are now especially concerned," Matesa told the press in Zagreb.#L# The Premier said the government fully supported the efforts of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union and the opposition parties in parliament to regulate by constitutional law the institute of the President's temporary disability. Matesa said the parliament, government, state administration, local government and self-government were functioning normally, within the frame of constitutional and legislative authority. It will be so in the future, no changes should be expected, he said. The press were interested if the Premier had talked to President Tudjman during a recent visit to the Dubrava clinic, where the President is undergoing treatment. "Leaving the hospital, I clearly said that I had seen the President. This means that I was with him, that I talked to him, that I saw that he recognised me. The President did not talk to me then, because he was unable to talk due to the medical treatment then underway," Matesa said. The Premier emphasised the members of President Tudjman's doctors' team had been made known to the public, that they were working on the principle of consensus, and that their statements must be accepted by all members. It is normal and the only possibility that there should be only one doctors' team statement, Matesa said, pointing out the opinion given to the Premier could not be different than the one released to the public. (hina) ha mm