ZUBAK: UPCOMING ELECTION WILL PASS IN BETTER CLIMATE THAN BEFORE

( Editorial: --> 9775 ) SARAJEVO, Sept 11 (Hina) - The members of Bosnia's collective Presidency on Friday assessed this weekend's general election in the country would pass in a much better climate than in the past. Today they held a meeting in Sarajevo with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana. The improved electoral climate is, according to the Presidency, the merit of the NATO-led peace Stabilisation Force (SFOR) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as a result of scheduling preparations, the Croat Presidency member Kresimir Zubak told reporters after the meeting. The talks with Solana also focused on the refugee return issue. Zubak and Presidency chairman Alija Izetbegovic said the return process must be made feasible throughout the country, and especially in the Bosnian Serb entity. The Serb member in the Presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, said however that the majority of Serbs did not want to return to the other entity, the Croat-Muslim Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Izetbegovic and I agreed that the refugees who don't want to return have the right to stay in (the Bosnian Serb entity), but don't have the right to stay on property and in houses and flats (owned by) Croats and (Muslims)", Zubak told reporters. During the talks with Solana, he said that SFOR units should stay in Bosnia by 2003, by which time reconstruction could be completed and Bosnia be able to regain its pre-war position. Izetbegovic assessed SFOR's presence would suffice by 2000, while Krajisnik declined to make any comment. (hina) ha jn 111812 MET sep 98