CROATIA'S GRANIC CONTINUES BILATERAL TALKS IN NEW YORK

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic, who is in New York to attend the 52nd session of UN's General assembly, on Wednesday held talks with his counterparts from Spain, Portugal and Andora, before meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The talks focused on the process of reintegration of the Danube region of eastern Croatia, the implementation of the peace agreements in Bosnia-Herzegovina and related pressure on Croatia to step it up. "The most important thing (in the Danube region) is the application of everything on the ground", Granic said after meeting his Spanish counterpart, Abel Matutes. "Everybody suggests that we settle the issue of cooperation with The Hague", he said. The U.S. initiative for the suspension of Croatia at the Council of Europe and a possibility to extend the UNTAES mandate in eastern Croatia was, according to Granic, the continuation of U.S. pressure aimed at making Croatia take steps which would make it easier for the international community to implement the Dayton accord. "Even though everybody denies there is a connection between the UNTAES mandate and the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the truth is the two things are connected", Croatia's foreign minister said. Granic reiterated he believed the pressure on Croatia was counterproductive. "We believe this pressurizing is unnecessary and unjustified, especially as concerns the Council of Europe", he said, adding he had said so at an earlier meeting with Robert Gelbard, a U.S. representative for the implementation of the peace accord in BH. At a previous meeting with his Yugoslav counterpart Milan Milutinovic, Croatia's Granic agreed for expert groups to start working on the implementation of agreements Croatia and Yugoslavia signed to date next week. He also held talks with Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen, focusing on a possible arrival of a monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe after the expiry of the UNTAES mandate in the Danube region. Foreign Minister Granic also talked with his Macedonian counterpart, Blagoje Handzinski. They discussed agreements on property relations and the regulation of money transfers which could be signed by year's end. (hina) ha 242126 MET sep 97