CROATIAN OPPOSITION LEADERS MEET STROBE TALBOTT

( Editorial: --> 5992 ) WASHINGTON, July 6 (Hina) - The presidents of five Croatian Opposition parties, who are on a visit to the United States, met the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Washington on Monday. The leaders of the Croatian Opposition expressed satisfaction with the meeting. "We have presented our well-known views and our wish for Croatia to further develop as a democratic state; we also expressed our wish to contribute to strengthening the relations between Croatia and the United States, friendly relations which Croatia needs to access western European associations sooner," president of the Croatian Social-Democratic Party (SDP), Ivica Racan, said after the meeting. "We told our partners that the Opposition, if it wins the elections, will continue its actions exactly in this direction," Liberal Party (LS) president Vlado Gotovac said. The presidents of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), Radimir Cacic, Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS), Ivan Jakovcic, Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS), Zlatko Tomcic, LS president Vlado Gotovac and SDP president Ivica Racan are paying a one-week visit to the United States. The visit was organised by the government agency USIA. The 40-minute meeting started with Talbott extending his congratulations on Croatia's success at the football World Cup in France, Racan said. "He stressed that one small nation has shown a high degree of pluckiness and resilience and said he hoped - and we agreed with this - that we would not be much weaker on the social, economic and democratic planes either," Racan said. "The American side has once again warned us that the attitude towards Croatia would depend on the quality of Croatia's relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina and its influence in implementation of the Dayton agreement," Racan said. Although the election law was not discussed, the Croatian Opposition conveyed "a wish of all democratic forces in Croatia for the next elections to be fair and for all participants to be equal," Racan said. Opposition leaders added that a precondition for this is the transformation of Croatia Radio Television into a public television. Croatian Ambassador to the United States Miomir Zuzul, who also attended the meeting, said the meeting did not differ from the usual diplomatic communication. The meeting mainly tackled "those problems which are usually discussed and the manner in which they were discussed did not differ from the usual practice," Zuzul said. "I believe that, on the basis of what I heard this morning, this visit and the talks which are to be held will contribute to our cooperation with America, including the implementation of some concrete plans and agreements, not only in Croatia but in that part of the world as well," Zuzul said. (hina) jn rml 062222 MET jul 98