NEGOTIATIONS ON SUCCESSION TO FORMER YU DELAYED UNTIL NEXT MONTH

( Editorial: --> 1049 ) ZAGREB/BRUSSELS, Sept 17 (Hina) - The continuation of negotiations on the succession to the former Yugoslavia planned for next Monday has been postponed for the second half of October, the Brussels- based office of the international representative for succession issues Arthur Watts said on Thursday. Watts needs more time for further consultations with the five interested parties in view of scheduling a new round of negotiations, said a Watts spokesman. The Administrative Committee of the Council for the Implementation of the Dayton peace agreement agreed in June that due to a lack of progress, negotiations on the succession should be suspended by September. The Committee also decided to discuss the succession after a new negotiating round, without excluding the possibility of international arbitration in case the new negotiating round was to fail. An agreement on the succession to the former Yugoslavia represents a blockade to the current Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which is against succession based on the findings of a European Community Arbitration Commission. The Arbitration Commission, also known as the Badinter Commission, established in 1992 that the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) broke up into constituent states, and confirmed the inviolability of their borders. On the basis of these findings, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia- Herzegovina and Macedonia took a joint standpoint that all independent states were successors to the SFRJ. The FRY, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, however insists that it is the only successor to the SFRJ. Croatia's share in the financing of the SFRJ was 30 per cent. (hina) ha jn/mbr 171630 MET sep 98