DEMILITARIZED PREVLAKA, FREE ACCESS TO PORTS CROATIA'S BOTTOM LINE

LINE $ - TUDJMAN GENEVA, March 18 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman met the US Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, in Geneva on Monday. The talks focused on problems in the implementation of the Moslem-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the mutual recognition between Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, sources close to the talks said. Croatia fully supported the Bosnian Federation but insisted that federal armed forces have two commanders-in-chief, a Croat and a Moslem, President Tudjman said. As for the mutual recognition and the normalization of relations with Yugoslavia, President Tudjman rejected negotiations on the "fabricated" issue of Prevlaka. As far as Croatia was concerned, demilitarization and free access to ports constituted the bottom line, Tudjman said. The US Secretary of State and Contact Group representatives are also to meet Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Presidency member Ejup Ganic. Other topics to be discussed today included the release of Bosnian prisoners-of-war, which should have been completed by Jan 19, chief civilian commissioner in Bosnia Carl Bildt said before the talks. Instead of which, there were still 219 prisoners behind bars and both sides (the Bosnian Federation and the Serb entity) were taking new prisoners, Bildt said. Problems in the implementation of the Croat-Moslem Federation accords would also be discussed, Bildt said. (hina) jn as 181825 MET mar 96