SLOVENIA RESERVED ABOUT U.S. SECI INITIATIVE

LJUBLJANA, Jan 14 (Hina) - Slovenia welcomes the initiative by the United States and President Clinton on cooperation in Southeastern Europe but rejects any institutional and political association in Southeastern alliances, Prime Minister designate Janez Drnovsek said on Tuesday. Drnovsek held a news conference in Ljubljana ahead of the arrival of Clinton's envoy Richard Schifter on Wednesday to present details of the US initiative to the Slovenian government. Drnovsek said he would stick to his reserved stance which he had taken during talks with Clinton two months ago when the initiative was first presented. Slovenia still has not formed a new government that should discuss the initiative and a parliamentary foreign relations committee has not been set up either, so that Slovenia has chosen to keep its observer status in the Southeastern European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), he said. (hina) vm mm 141506 MET jan 97