CROATIA PROPOSES CONTINUATION OF TALKS WITH BECHTEL - JURICA

( Editorial: --> 6726 ) ZAGREB, Jan 23 (Hina) - The Croatian state leadership has proposed a continuation of negotiations with the US company Bechtel on the construction of a highway to the state border near Bihac (Bosnia- Herzegovina). This road would run through Bihac towards Dubrovnik with branch-roads towards Split, Sarajevo and Ploce. This proposal was also mentioned in a statement from a session of the Council for Strategic Decisions, head of the Croatian government's Communications Office, Neven Jurica, said on Friday. He stressed the Croatian government expressed satisfaction with the readiness of Turkey to take part in the project. The construction of this highway in cooperation with Bosnia- Herzegovina and the Bosnian Federation was a mutually acceptable and useful solution of long-term importance, Jurica said. Through it, the Croatian state leadership wanted to consistently stimulate further connecting of Croatia and the Bosnian Federation in the spirit of the Dayton and Washington Agreements, he said, stressing that the Bosnian Federation had to be connected with Croatia, which was a guarantee for the maintaining and protection of Croat interests in the Bosnian Federation. Asked about the government's stance towards an initiative that a so-called ad hoc group for the former Yugoslavia, a body at the European Union, be renamed into "Western Balkans", Jurica said that, as far as he knew, it had not yet been made formal. Speaking about the intention of renaming, Jurica said that it showed that certain international circles closed their eyes before reality. Croatia belonged to central European countries and the Mediterranean South, he concluded. During question time at the government a booklet was presented called "The System of Bodies for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in the Republic of Croatia" which was published by the government's Communication's Office on occasion of the 50th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Protection of Human Rights. (hina) lm mm 231506 MET jan 98