SLOVENES CLAIMS 1 KRSKO TRANSMISSION LINE RECONNECTED TO CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 1592 ) LJUBLJANA, August 3 (Hina) - Slovenia's electricity distributor ELES on Monday night reconnected one of two 400kV transmission lines from the Krsko nuclear power plant to Croatia, according to the Slovene news agency STA. The reconnection was made at 6pm in accordance with an agreement made with the Slovene Economy Ministry, the agency said. In a special statement for STA, ELES managing director Ivo Banic said the transmission line was reconnected after Croatia paid 398 million Slovenian tolars (about US$2.3 million) it owed. Krsko is located in Slovenia but the nuclear power plant is jointly owned by Croatia and Slovenia. The transmission lines between Krsko and Croatia were disconnected unilaterally last Thursday by the Slovene side. In Ljubljana on Monday, Slovene Economy Minister Metod Dragonja said the second part of the Croatian debt amounting to 500 million tolars (about US$2.9 million) was due on Tuesday. Dragonja hoped that the reconnection of the one of the transmission lines was a step which would help re-establish mutual trust between Croatia and Slovenia. (Hina) mbr 040009 MET aug 98