CROATIAN VICE PREMIER VISITS WASHINGTON

Washington Feb 5 (Hina) - US Deputy Commerce Secretary Stuart Eizenstat received Croatian Deputy Vice Premier Jure Radic in Washington on Wednesday, a statement from the Croatian Embassy in Washington said. Eizenstat expressed satisfaction about Croatia's economic and political achievements and stressed that the US administration had intended a key role to Croatia, through a strategy of economic politics for the region. A regional office of the US Commerce Department is top be opened in Zagreb soon and a regional commerce official has been nominated. A US commerce mission to Zagreb has been planned for Autumn. Radic expressed satisfaction with the progress in political and economic relations between the two countries and thanked Eizenstat for everything that had been done so far. Radic stressed that such cooperation was the continuation of talks started with the late Commerce Minister Ron Brown. He announced the signing of a letter of intent with the largest construction house in America, Bechtel, on the construction of roads in Croatia. Radic called American partners to engage themselves in projects of energy supply and ecology such as the system of gathering waste waters in the Adriatic coast. A joint commemoration to mark the anniversary of the killing of Ron Brown and American business people was agreed to take place in Washington on 3 April and in Dubrovnik in the beginning of June. Eizenstat stressed that he respected the role of Croatia in the stabilisation of the Bosnian Federation and that he would support Croatia's accession into the World Trade Organisation, as well as the continuation of the privatisation process. Present at the talks were assistants to the commerce secretary Fitz- Pegado, Raymond Vicker and William Ginsberg, as well as Croatian Ambassador to the US, Mario Zuzul. Zuzul stressed that, as had been agreed between presidents Tudjman and Clinton, after the tragedy in Dubrovnik, Croatia and USA would continue the work on the overall strengthening of economic relations and hailed the American economic strategy towards Croatia, the statement said. (hina) lm jn 052319 MET feb 97