PRESIDENT TUDJMAN MEETS ICFY CO-CHAIRMEN OWEN AND STOLTENBERG

ZAGREB, Jan 12 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman today received the Co-Chairmen of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, Lord David Owen and Thorvald Stoltenberg. Others present included the President's Office chief-of-staff and negotiator with rebel Croatian Serbs, Hrvoje Sarinic, Defence Minister Gojko Susak, head of the Office for National Security, Krunoslav Olujic, the President's Foreign Affairs adviser Zeljko Matic and Ambassador to the Geneva Conference, Kai Eide. Discussed was the continuation of talks with rebel Serb representatives on the implementation of the December 2 Economic Agreement, and concrete issues surrounding this theme. Also discussed was the contiunation of normalizing Croatian-Serbian relations. Speaking after the talks, Lord Owen said he and Stoltenberg informed Tudjman of their talks in Belgrade. "We also talked about how we could advance dialogue between Zagreb and Belgrade because Stoltenberg and I believe that this is the key to peace in the former Yugoslavia," Lord Owen said. Owen described as successful the talks at Pleso between rebel Serb representatives and the Croatian delegation led by Sarinic. The most important progress was made in connection with the transportation of generator poles to the Obrovac power plant and reopening of the oil pipeline. Commenting on Ambassador to the UN Mario Nobilo's response to Owen's and Stoltenberg's report to Boutros-Boutros Ghali, Owen said that 'in real life it's important to make progress on the ground", and added that President Tudjman was aware of it. "Everyone must play their part in the peace process," Owen said. "Our task is to bring people to the negotiating table to establish progress on the terrain," he said. Asked about UNPROFOR's future in Croatia, Owen said that the Croatian Government would decide on this while UNPROFOR and the ICFY had to use all possibilities that remained to them so that they could act as quickly as possible. (hina) mar sd mms 121306 MET jan 95