CROATIA ADVOCATES STRENGTHENING OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN INITIATIVE

( Editorial: --> 4641 ) SARAJEVO, Nov 29 (Hina) - Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa on Saturday called on Central European Initiative member-countries to strengthen cooperation and to actively participate in the building of Europe's new architecture. Matesa is attending a CEI summit which began in Sarajevo Friday. "Over the past year, Croatia has acted as a factor of peace and has actively contributed to stabilization processes in the region", he said, adding all CEI member countries could participate in the efforts through the Initiative itself. Matesa believed 1998, when Zagreb will chair the CEI, would mark the beginning of a new age which would concentrate on peace-time issues and European and Atlantic integration processes. An altered architecture within the European Union represented the most important process in Europe today, Croatia's premier said, adding it would have direct influence on the CEI itself and all its member-countries. The CEI member-countries must work at preventing new divisions in Europe, Matesa said. He said in 1998 Croatia would advocate the continuation of cooperation within the CEI, in order to strengthen unity within the Initiative and to maintain extant mechanisms of discussing, acting and reaching decisions. The strengthening of bilateral dialogue with the European Union would be another priority, he said, adding meetings between representatives of the Union and the Initiative should be held regularly to that effect. Matesa supported Italy's initiative to turn the current Documents Centre into a permanent CEI Secretariat. Today, Matesa held meetings with his Belarus and Macedonian counterparts, Sergei Ling and Branko Crvenkovski respectively. Talks focused on bilateral issues and Croatia's role as the future chairing country of the CEI. Earlier today, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic held talks with Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Piero Fassino. They talked about Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro's impending visit to Croatia. Granic also held talks with his Slovene counterpart Boris Frlec, with whom he discussed bilateral issues, and achieved positive results regarding the legal status of joint nuclear power plant Krsko, which is on Slovene territory. Intense continuation of talks on all levels regarding all unsolved issues between Croatia and Slovenia is expected. (hina) ha jn 291424 MET nov 97