PRESIDENCY FAILS TO REACH CONSENSUS ON SPECIAL TIES WITH CROATIA ( Editorial: --> 2721 )

( Editorial: --> 2721 ) SARAJEVO, Nov 21 (Hina) - The Croat and Serb members of Bosnia- Herzegovina's presidency, Kresimir Zubak and Momcilo Krajisnik, on Friday supported a Croatian proposal for establishing special relations between Croatia and the Bosnian Federation, Bosnian Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic told reporters after a presidency session in the Sarajevo suburb of Lukavica. The two officials said that the reply by the Moslem chairman of the three-man presidency, Alija Izetbegovic, to Croatian President Franjo Tudjman regarding the proposal "lacked credibility", Prlic said. Zubak and Krajisnik assessed that Izetbegovic's reply was in contravention of the presidency statute and that the entities had the right to establish special ties with neighbouring countries as such a provision was also contained in the Constitution. The co-chairman of the Council of Ministers, Haris Silajdzic, who represented Izetbegovic at the meeting, stuck to the position of the Bosniac Moslem side that the proposal was unacceptable. Silajdzic invoked the personal proposal on the arrangement of relations between the two states which Izetbegovic had sent to Tudjman. (hina) vm 211635 MET nov 97