CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ENDS VISIT TO SLOVENIA

LJUBLJANA, July 4 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic visited Ljubljana on Thursday where he met Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek and acting Foreign Minister Zoran Thaler for talks on bilateral issues and multilateral cooperation. Granic told reporters that the talks were open, friendly and constructive and that they produced several concrete results. The two sides exchanged notes on the distribution of the debt of Croatia and Slovenia from the Rome agreement of 1983 as both countries were successors to the Ossimo accords between Italy and the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. Granic and Thaler welcomed an agreement between the health ministries of their countries which would enable Croatians receiving Slovene pensions to renew the use of health insurance until a bilateral convention was signed. The two officials arranged a meeting of ministers for economic affairs to finalize agreements on property relations and the Krsko nuclear power plant. Granic and Thaler said that they also discussed the multilateral cooperation of the two countries, expressing satisfaction with Slovenia establishing closer ties with the European Union and Croatia with the Council of Europe. Granic stressed that Croatia rejected the idea of being admitted to European institutions and associations in a package with other former Yugoslav republics. Croatia wanted to join Euroatlantic organizations and establish economic cooperation with Central European countries, particularly within the Central European Free Trade Association and the Central European Initiative, he added. Granic said that the resolution of the issue of Ljubljanska Banka depositors in Croatia would accelerate agreement on all other issues. He said that the Croatian Agriculture Ministry's book of regulations on fishing in no way prejudged the future border on the sea, which would be solved through negotiations. Granic and Thaler stressed good cooperation between the two countries on the issues of succession to the former Yugoslavia. (hina) vm 042129 MET jul 96