WORLD BANK POSTPONES CREDITS FOR CRO DANUBIAN AREA

ZAGREB, Nov 12 (Hina) - The World Bank postponed credits for the reconstruction of the Croatian Danubian area, making the granting of them conditional on the successful reintegration of the area, Croatia's deputy prime minister Ivica Kostovic and a World Bank official, Susan Louise Rutledge, said in Zagreb on Tuesday. The World Bank should grant to Croatia two credits, worth 30 and 70 million US dollars, for the reconstruction, infrastructure, mines clearance, and embankments in the Croatian Danubian area. The first credit should have come very soon, but at the moment it is linked with holding local elections... Other means should have been given during the mandate of the UNTAES, but now it has been decided they will be available when Croatia completely take over there, Kostovic told reporters after the meeting. We follow the situation in Croatia very attentively and we are pleased to see good cooperation between Croatia's authorities, UNTAES and local authorities, the World Bank representative Rutledge said, pointing to the political background of the postponement of granting credits. Answering to the question whether he saw the delay as the blackmailing of Croatia, Kostovic said that they had got used to that in the last six years, adding that they could put up with that well, and that they would be able to put up with it in the future as well. (hina) jn mš 121955 MET nov 96