PARLIAMENT SPEAKERS MANOLIC, MESIC HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE

ZAGREB, May 16 (Hina) - At a Monday press conference, lower house speaker Stipe Mesic and his upper house counterpart Josip Manolic expounded a proposal, put forward by several opposition parties, that a motion for relieving the speaker of the House of Counties be struck from the agenda for the next sitting of that House. As for a similar motion tabled for the Wednesday session of the House of Representative, the proposal suggested that it should be dropped altogether. The opposition further proposed that, subject to the agreement of the ruling party, another session be called within 15 to 20 days to discuss the reshuffle of all parliamentary offices in keeping with the new party composition of Parliament. Asked whether the Croatian Independent Democrats was behind this proposal, Mesic said it had been put forward by the joint opposition. Asked about their letter to the US Congress, Mesic said he and Manolic wanted to warn the Congress that "the Washington Agreement was threatened by some people who had opposed it from the first." "We also asked for the lifting of the arms embargo against Bosnia- Herzegovina and Croatia," Mesic said. 161807 MET may 94