CROATIA AND YUGOSLAVIA CONTINUE NEGOTIATIONS ABOUT PREVLAKA

( Editorial: --> 7281 ) BELGRADE, Oct 9 (Hina) - A new round of talks about the Prevlaka peninsula began in Belgrade on Friday between Croatian and Yugoslav delegations. A short joint statement issued after the meeting said the subject of talks was the fulfilment of commitments by the two countries regarding the border between Croatia and Yugoslavia, as stipulated in the Agreement on the Normalisation of Relations signed by the two countries in August of 1996. The result of Friday's meeting, the joint statement said, were "adopted regulations in the negotiating procedure" and an agreement that "the two sides submit their starting points of view". Prevlaka is Croatia's southernmost peninsula which borders with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. FRY has territorial pretensions to the peninsula, defining it as a border dispute, while Croatia remains at the stance that the two countries can discuss Prevlaka only as a security issue. Attending the meeting were also the Croatian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Zvonimir Markovic, and the Yugoslav Ambassador to Croatia, Veljko Knezevic. Chairman of the Croatian State Border Commission, Hrvoje Kacic, led the 11-member delegation to Belgrade. After the talks he told reporters that the Croatian side has presented to the Yugoslav side documentation proving that the borderline on the location of borders of Croatia, Bosnia- Herzegovina and Montenegro to the Konfin cape, is indisputable. This has also been confirmed by all UN Security Council resolutions and by the Badinter arbitration commission report of 1992. Based on these documents, Croatia has received the confirmation of its borders from the international community, Kacic said. Experts must draw analyses on the border line at sea, from the Konfin cape towards the territorial waters of the neighbouring country, and determine the mutual borderline of the "continental shelf". Kacic expressed regret that representatives of Montenegro had not attended the meeting, describing this as a "handicap of the commission negotiating on behalf of FRY." (hina) lml 092010 MET oct 98