CROATIA STILL CONSIDERS ITS NEGOTIATIONS WITH SLOVENIA OPEN

ZAGREB, Nov 10 (Hina)- Slovenia's recent statements prove that it is prone to looking for international arbitration for the resolution of its differences with Croatia, while Zagreb still believes that bilateral negotiations on contentious issues should not be considered finished. The Slovene Prime Minister, Janez Drnovsek, said on Monday in Ljubljana that talks with the president of the International Monetary Fund, Michael Camdessus, "brought about an agreement on the IMF's mediation in the resolution of the dispute concerning Ljubljanska banka bank if that proves to be necessary", i.e. if direct contacts between the two Government's bear no fruit. In his comment Croatian economics Minister Nenad Porges said Drnovsek's statement on the IMF's mediation in the dispute about the Ljubljanska banka bank was meant to "test the terrain". Porges added that "bilateral negotiations on that matter have not yet flopped". The Croatian Foreign Ministry also reports Croatia and Slovenia would resume talks concerning bilateral differences, including the debts of the Ljubljanska banka bank, at the forthcoming summit of the Central European Initiative on 20 and 21 November in Zagreb. "Croatian and Slovene Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers are expected to meet no later than the CEI conference. They will then analyse everything that has been done after the meeting in Mokrice", announced the Foreign Minister's spokesman Zeljko Trkanjac. Slovene sources, on the other hand, do not rule out the possibility that the two sides could meet even before the CEI conference in Zagreb. At their meeting on August 25 in Mokrice, Croatia and Slovenia agreed to try to reach an agreement on Ljubljanska banka and the Krsko nuclear power plant within three months, and if they fail to do so, to seek international arbitration. (Hina) mr