PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENTS TUDJMAN, BERISHA

TIRANA, Mar 1 (Hina) - Croatian Preesident Franjo Tudjman and Albanian President Sali Berisha held a joint news conference on Tuesday in Tirana. "The co-operation of Albania and Croatia is of utmost importance for integration processes in the Balkans, where an integration policy is needed, although the times are difficult," President Berrisha told reporters, adding that the bilateral agreements signed today paved the way to cooperation in many areas. Expounding Albanian views on the crisis in the Balkans, President Berisha said "Croatia was a country exposed to aggression," explaining that the aggressor was Serbia. He said the creation of a Croat-Moslem confederation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and confederal ties with Croatia could "bring peace and have a positive impact on the stability in the region." The Albanian President reiterated his support to yesterday's NATO strike against Serbian jets in Bosnia-Herzegovina. President Berisha thanked Croatia for its assistance to Albanians in Kosovo. He stressed that the crisis in the Balkans could not be resolved until a solution was found to the Kosovo issue. "That is why we support the efforts to link the lifting of the embargo with the situation in Kosovo, to place Kosovo under international supervision, and to reopen those institutions in Kosovo which have been outlawed," said President Berisha. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said his visit to Albania had been a success. Noting that both Albania and Croatia were Adriatic-oriented countries which took part in the formation of a new world order, President Tudjman said: "After the wreck of former Yugoslavia, Albania and Croatia must be the pillars of the new international order in south-eastern Europe." President Tudjman concluded by informing his hosts of the efforts undertaken by the European Union and the United States to put an end to the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. President Tudjman returned to Zagreb on Tuesday evening. 012206 MET mar 94