CRO PRESIDENT RECEIVES ITALIAN PREMIER

ZAGREB, Nov 21 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on Saturday received Italian Premier Massimo D'Alema. According to a statement from the President's Office, both parties expressed satisfaction with how mutual relations in all fields had developed to date. There was also mutual willingness to increase the participation of Italian companies in Croatian economy. D'Alema commended Croatia for the way it presided over the Central European Initiative (CEI) in the past year. He added Italy wanted to augment its role in central and eastern Europe, in order to assist countries in transition get closer to integration with Western Europe. Speaking about ways of achieving lasting stability in Bosnia- Herzegovina (BH), the Croatian President emphasised the importance of signing, as soon as possible, two already initialled agreements. These are the agreement on special relations between Croatia and the Croat-Muslim Federation, one of BH's two entities, and the agreement between Croatia and BH on BH's use of Croatian port Ploce and Croatia's passage through BH port Neum. The agreements, stressed Tudjman, were necessary for a consistent implementation of the Washington and Dayton peace agreements. Also present at today's talks were the President's chief-of-staff Ivica Kostovic, Deputy Foreign Minister Ivo Sanader, the President's advisor for foreign affairs, Neven Madey, and Croatian Ambassador to Italy Davorin Rudolf. (hina) ha