CRO FOREIGN MINISTER HOLDS TALKS WITH BOSNIAN SERB PREMIER

( Editorial: --> 1955 ) ZAGREB, Feb 14 (Hina) - Bosnian Serb Premier Milorad Dodik Saturday arrived in Croatia, at the invitation of Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic and the Croatian President's special envoy for relations with the (Croat-Muslim) Bosnian Federation and Bosnia- Herzegovina, Franjo Greguric. Assessing the first working meeting with Dodik as open and constructive, Foreign Minister Granic said the Bosnian Serb delegation had promised to support the opening of a Croatian consulate in Banja Luka, in the Bosnian Serb entity. "We expect that problems with passports, the law on citizenship and registration plates will be solved by April and conditions created to discuss a new visa system or an agreement on visas, (...) that the agreement currently valid for the territory of the Bosnian Federation will be applied to Republika Srpska as well", Granic told reporters. Today's talks also focused on missing persons, refugees and the solving of related property issues. The parties agreed a joint commission should meet in Zagreb within a fortnight to step up the solving of these issues. According to the Bosnian Serb premier, this commission will "set up an operative programme which will focus on establishing the number of people, the property, while the return of refugees will depend on (the refugees') own will." Also discussed were legal issues related to border crossing locations. The parties concluded the matter should be promptly solved by experts. According to Granic "this is part of our policy towards Bosnia- Herzegovina, based on the Dayton agreement." He said that Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa had invited his Bosnian Federation counterpart Edhem Bicakcic to visit Croatia. "It is a month now that we have been waiting for the Bosnian Presidency to confirm an earlier agreement on the establishment of a cooperation council, and for the Bosnian Federation and BH to appoint a commission for negotiations on the Agreement on Special Relations, the use of the port of Ploce (southern Croatia) and Neum (Bosnian port on the Adriatic), and a consortium for the building of a motorway", said the Croatian foreign minister. The Bosnian Serb premier today also held talks with Croatian Finance Minister Borislav Skegro, who said that talks focused on navigation of the Sava river, as well as on other road and railroad corridors. Skegro said expert teams would meet in a week to agree on details of related projects and discuss possibilities of prompter establishment of railroad and road transport between Croatia and the Bosnian Serb entity. Skegro's talks with Dodik also focused on economic cooperation. Related issues will in the future be discussed by teams of experts, the finance minister said. Expressing satisfaction with being in Croatia at the head of a Bosnian Serb delegation, Dodik assessed today's talks as very concrete. The Bosnian Serb Government is committed to solving all issues discussed as soon as possible, Dodik said, hoping future meetings of expert teams would contribute to that. "Out standpoint is that the Dayton agreement has definitely determined the political framework of solving issues on the territory of the former Yugoslavia", the Bosnian Serb premier concluded. (hina) ha 141709 MET feb 98