CROATIAN AND ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS SIGN FOUR AGREEMENTS

ROME, June 27 (Hina) - "It was the easiest, but also the longest conversation I have had with a minister of foreign affairs," Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said in Rome on Friday evening after talks with his Italian counterpart Lamberto Dini. The two ministers signed four bilateral agreements: an agreement on the repatriation of people staying in either country with irregular documents, an agreement on social insurance which makes it possible for citizens of one country to seek medical attention in the other, an agreement on tourist cooperation which envisages the establishment of a joint body of their tourist federations to exchange information and monitor trends in the tourist trade, and an agreement on the cancellation of passports, which allows Croatian citizens to enter Italy only with personal identity cards. This agreement is yet to be ratified by the two governments. Also signed was a memorandum on the Italian financing of projects in Croatia. Italy will earmark about five billion lire under the memorandum based on a law allowing Italy to grant gift loans for projects in former communist countries. Both ministers described the bilateral relations as good. They discussed the ratification of an agreement on the protection of the Italian minority in Croatia and of the Croatian minority in Italy, which was signed in Zagreb last year. Dini said that Italy's governing coalition had already supported the agreement, adding that he expected no obstacles in parliament to its ratification. He said that there would certainly be individuals from the far right who would most likely oppose the agreement because they expected some reciprocal favours from Croatia, particularly concerning real estate. He added that the agreement had been drafted according to all international norms from the field of protection of minorities. Italy and Croatia agreed to step up work on a friendship and cooperation agreement that is likely to be signed this autumn during a visit by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to Zagreb. Granic travels to the region of Molise on Saturday to meet representatives of the Croatian minority which settled there in the 15th century. (hina) vm jn 272114 MET jun 97