CROATIA'S MATESA AND GRANIC PLEASED WITH MEETINGS AT C.E.I. CONFER

CONFER $ ENCE GRAZ, Nov 9 (Hina) - Croatia's Premier Zlatko Matesa and Foreign Minister Mate Granic, leading a Croatian delegation at a two-day conference of Central European Initiative (CEI) member-countries in Austria, voiced pleasure with the process of profiling the CEI organization, and with many bilateral meetings that had in Graz in the last two days. Premier Matesa said his counterparts he had talked with, had promised they would speed up negotiations with Croatia on the establishment of free trade areas. Foreign Minister Granic said all CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Area) member countries confirmed they would like to sign treaties on a free trade area with Croatia. He voiced a hope that treaties with some of those countries would be signed by the end of this year. Croatia may join the CEFTA if it signs bilateral agreements on a free trade zone with all member countries, reaches with the EU an agreement on trade and cooperation and also becomes a full member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In January 1997, Croatia and the WTO will begin a second round of talks, which is due to end by mid-1997. As regards negotiations with the EU on the agreement on the trade and cooperation, Minister Granic expected that they would start soon. Speaking of wishes of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ) to be admitted to the Central European Initiative, the Croatian Foreign Minister said his country had nothing against it on condition that Belgrade respected all procedural rules and submitted a request for the membership as one of the country- successors to the former Yugoslavia (SFRJ). During the two-day CEI conference in Graz, Croatia's Matesa and Granic held talks with delegations of Slovakia, Poland, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Austria, Italy, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Belarussia. The talks revolved around bilateral cooperation and concrete economic projects. Italian Premier Romano Prodi and Czech Foreign Minister Josef Zieleniec accepted invitations of their Croatian counterparts Matesa and Granic respectively to visit Croatia. (hina) jn mš 091815 MET nov 96