PARIS MEETING SEEN AS IMPORTANT STEP TOWARDS CONSOLIDATING PEACE

SARAJEVO, Oct 4 (Hina) - Thursday's meeting of the Bosnian and Serbian presidents is a very important step towards the strengthening of peace and stability in the region, Sarajevo media and international mediators said on Friday. The Paris meeting of Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia- Herzegovina and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia was a great success because they had agreed to establish full diplomatic relations and exchange amabassadors, a spokesman for the office of the international High Representative, Column Murphy, told a news conference in Sarajevo. Murphy said that the meeting had shown the willingness of the two sides to resolve the problem of succession to the former Yugoslav federation by recognizing the integrity of Bosnia- Herzegovina and the continuity of the present Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro. The Sarajevo-based daily "Oslobodjenje" described the agreement between the two presidents as impressive. "Not only did Belgrade rennounce its territorial claims, but it also warned the Bosnian Serb leadership at Pale that it was no longer behind their secessionist intentions," the paper said. Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic told Oslobodjenje that from the legal point of view "a full stop has been put to the crisis in the former Yugoslavia." The Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency, Kresimir Zubak, was quoted by the "Dnevni Avaz" daily as saying that such an agreement should have been signed before and that Bosnia- Herzegovina achieved more than it had expected. "When he set off for Paris, Izetbegovic did not expect that," Zubak said. However, there was no explanation of Bosnia-Herzegovina's lawsuit against Yugoslavia before the International Court of Justice over its aggression, the issue frequently raised by Sarajevo media before the Paris meeting. Bosnian officials had repeatedly said that the withdrawal of the lawsuit, persistently demanded by Belgrade, was out of the question. There has been no official statement yet concerning the dispute. (hina) vm jn 041627 MET oct 96