BELGRADE DELAYS SPECIAL TIES DEAL WITH BOSNIAN SERB ENTITY AFTER SARAJEVO OBJECTS

BELGRADE, Feb 17 (Hina) - Yugoslavia's authorities on Saturday asserted that all competent bodies in Bosnia-Herzegovina were acquainted with Belgrade's intention to conclude an agreement on the establishment of special parallel relations with Bosnia's entity - the Republic of Srpska. Yugoslavia previously announced the signing of the agreement for Friday (February 16), but it has been postponed. On Saturday, Yugoslavia forwarded a note to Bosnia's foreign ministry, reading that during his visit to Sarajevo a month ago, President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), Vojislav Kostunica, had informed Bosnia's top officials and international representatives of those Yugoslav plans. "Present at those talks was Bosnia-Herzegovina's Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic, and thus Bosnia's foreign ministry and other relevant bodies were acquainted with the plans and readiness of the FRY to conclude this agreement with the Republic of Srpska," read a statement released by the Yugoslav foreign ministry today. The same ministry added that negotiations on the agreement were still under way and the talks were conducted in spirit and in compliance with the general framework peace agreement in Bosnia and the constitution of that country. On Friday the ministry in Belgrade received a verbal note from the Bosnian foreign ministry following the announcements that Belgrade was going to sign the special ties agreement with the Bosnian Serb entity. According to Sarajevo, no state body, including the foreign ministry was "officially notified of that". According to Belgrade's statement, during his stay in Sarajevo, Kostnica held talks with Bosnia's collective presidency chairman Zivko Radisic and other two members of the presidency, with the international community's High Representative to Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch and UN Secretary-General's special envoy to Sarajevo, Jacques Paul Klein. At the end of the statement Belgrade asserted that the Yugoslav side "would like to respect the regular procedure in every respect." (hina) ms