CROATIAN DEFENCE MINISTER MEETS ITALIAN COUNTERPART IN ROME

ROME, July 3 (Hina) - Defence Ministers Beniamino Andreatta of Italy and Gojko Susak of Croatia reached agreement in Rome on Thursday on joint military exercises, on Italy's support to Croatia's bid for entry into NATO's Partnership for Peace programme and on military cooperation. This was the first official meeting of the defence ministers and commanders of the armed forces of Croatia and Italy. Speaking to Croatian reporters in Rome, Susak described the meeting as very successful. "An Italian team of experts arrives in Zagreb in September to prepare an agreement on military cooperation, similar to the one we signed with the United States," Susak said. "It is estimated that the agreement will be completed before spring and Minister Andreatta expressed a desire to come to Zagreb to sign the agreement," he added. "In our opinion we agreed important things, first of all joint exercises which will most probably be held on the Adriatic. The two navies are yet to work that out. "Furthermore, we proposed that Croatia and Austria be admitted to the trilateral association of Italy, Slovenia and Hungary. The Italian side believes that that would be a normal procedure, proposing that we begin with joint exercises. We will most probably join those exercises which are likely to be held in Hungary," Susak said. "Within the next year, Italy will be one of the main supporters of Croatia's bid to enter the Partnership for Peace," he said. After the United States, Italy will be the first Western nation with which Croatia will sign a military cooperation agreement. The talks also involved the chiefs of staff of the Croatian and Italian armed forces, Lt. General Pavao Miljavac and Admiral Guido Venturoni. (hina) vm mm 032013 MET jul 97