FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS CROATIA WILL DELIVER SERB RETURN PLAN ON TIME

( Editorial: --> 6671 ) ZAGREB, May 26 (Hina) - Croatia will work out on time a concrete plan on the return of Croatian Serbs and thereby avoid the international community's threat of sanctions, Foreign Minister Mate Granic said on Tuesday. Granic told a regular press conference in Zagreb that he expected a refugee return plan would be completed by June 20 at the latest. The plan would then be adopted by the Croatian National Parliament two days before a European Union Council of Ministers meeting set down for June 27. During the past few months the international community, especially the European Union and the United Sates, have applied great pressure on Croatia trying to enable the return of Serb refugees. At a meeting which took place in Brussels on Monday, EU foreign ministers welcomed Croatia's adoption of a document on the procedure for the return of Serbs. They said that an assessment of Croatia would depend on the application of the document, and they expected the Croatian Government to produce a clear and comprehensive plan of return in the foreseeable period. Granic said Croatia would also fulfil other expectations of the international community which was asking Croatia primarily to implement the Dayton agreement in Bosnia-Herzegovina and carry out internal democratisation. The Croatian Foreign Minister expressed a belief that Croatia would find common ground with the international community and at the same time protect its own strategic interests and carry out its international obligations. Granic denounced comments made by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Louise Arbour, who on Sunday accused Croatia of not cooperating with the Hague Tribunal in handing over war crimes suspects. He said such a comment was part of the excessive and unnecessary pressures on Croatia, given that Croatia was the most cooperative party. "We strongly reject such a comment," Granic said. (Hina) jn mb /rm 261629 MET may 98