CROATIAN PRESIDENT HOLDS BILATERAL TALKS IN GENEVA

GENEVA, June 2 (Hina) - The Croatian delegation led by President Franjo Tudjman on Sunday afternoon held separate talks with US Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic as part of bilateral meetings at the US diplomatic mission in Geneva. During talks with Christopher, Croatia reiterated its commitment to full implentation of the Dayton peace accords. It was said that general elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina shoud be held according to agreed conditions and time-table at all levels of government. The talks also focused on the peaceful reintegration of the remaining occupied areas of eastern Croatia and it was agreed that the United States would take an active part in the search for missing persons and that it would continue its active role in the whole process. Diplomats close to the talks said that the US confirmed that it would resume its economic mission that had been suspended due to the tragic death of Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown in a plane crash in southern Croatia two months ago. Talks with Izetbegovic centred on some open issues related to the functioning of the Croat-Moslem Federation in Bosnia- Herzegovina. The two sides reached agreements on freedom of the media in the Federation, particularly as regards their role in the pre- election period, and on the armed forces. As the day-long talks in Geneva were drawing to a close, negotiators from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia were adjusting the text of a joint document with commitments the three sides would assume in further implementing the Bosnian peace accords, diplomats said. It remained open how to get Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to assume responsibility for creating necessary conditions for holding elections in Serb-controlled Bosnia- Herzegovina, including the removal of Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic, both indicted for war crimes by the Hague-based international criminal tribunal. Christopher, speaking to reporters about an alleged letter pledging the dismissal of Karadzic and Mladic from power, said that it was not the papers but actions that mattered. During a joint working lunch, Milosevic said, according to diplomatic sources, that the holding of free and fair elections would be a turning point in the peace process and that conditions for their holding would be met within planned time limits. Croatia urged the establishment of cantonal government bodies in the Federation and according to some sources, an agreement was reached on the beginning of US-led international arbitration in the Brcko area of northeastern Bosnia. A date for elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina was expected to be announced at a meeting of foreign ministers in Florence on 13- 14 June. (hina) vm 021946 MET jun 96