CROATIA FULLY RESPECTS OSCE PRINCIPLES AND AIMS - PM

LISBON, Dec 2 (Hina) - Croatia supports efforts aimed at building a European security system on the basis of democracy and respect for fundamental human rights, but demands that every country have the right to determine its own security interests and enter defence arrangements at its discretion, Croatian Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa said in an address to an OSCE meeting in Lisbon on Monday. Matesa was heading the Croatian delegation at a two-day summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which opened on Monday. He said that Croatia respected all principles and aims of the OSCE and stressed that it was willing to consider the possibility of an OSCE mission in the Danube river region of eastern Croatia after the expiry of the UNTAES mandate in July 1997. The OSCE was the first international institution to admit Croatia as an independent state in 1992. During the first day of the summit, Matesa and Foreign Minister Mate Granic me for talks with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. Granic also held talks with Foreign Ministers Wolfgang Schuessell of Austria, Laszlo Kovacs of Hungary, Alberto Dini of Italy and Bjorn Godal of Norway. (Hina) vm mm 021846 MET dec 96