BOSNIAN PASSPORTS TO INCORPORATE ENTITY SYMBOLS

( Editorial: --> 2840 ) SARAJEVO, Feb 18 (Hina) - The Council of Ministers in Bosnia- Herzegovina has decided that the printing of new passports for that country will be done in Germany, the Ministry of Civil Issues and Communications confirmed today in Sarajevo. In a notice relating to the new passports which was sent by Minister Spasoje Albijanic to the Office of the High Representative for the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement, it states that following a public tender the printing firm "Bundesdruckerei GmbH" was appointed as its offer was most favourable. The B-H passports which will be printed by "Bundesdruckerei GmbH" will be of a high quality and produced according to standards of European Union countries for such documents. The B-H Ministry of Civil Issues and Communications emphasised that it hopes the quality production of travel documents for citizens of that country will prevent forgery so that it would be possible to commence talks to abolish visas for travel to foreign countries. B-H citizens can currently only travel without a visa to Croatia (and only those citizens from the Croat-Muslim Federation), Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Iran and Malaysia. Earlier there was an indication that the High Representative Carlos Westendorp would revoke the B-H Parliament's decision to name the entities on the passport and would introduce a uniform look for the passport covers. However, his spokesman said today that he has abandoned that because the High Representative only has the power to intervene in situations when the three sides cannot agree, which here was not the case. For example, Westendorp decided on the look of the new B-H flag, currency and registration plates for vehicles. (hina) mm mrb 181529 MET feb 98