GRANIC HOLDS SEVERAL BILATERAL MEETINGS IN PARIS

PARIS, Nov 14 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic on Thursday held a series of bilateral talks in Paris where he was attending a conference on Bosnia-Herzegovina. Granic met European Commissioner for Central and Eastern Europe Hans van den Broek, with whom he discussed EU and Croatian views on regional stability. Granic stressed Croatia's resolutness to meet its obligations towards the peaceful reintegration of the UN-administered Danube river region of eastern Croatia and to consistently comply with the Dayton peace accords. Van den Broek said that the EU's regional approach was not aimed at creating new associations or a new Yugoslavia. He stressed that the EU would take an individual approach to each country in the region and that no country would be "held hostage" because of a rejection of another to comply with the principle of reciprocity. It was announced that a European Commission representative would meet a Croatian Foreign Mininstry official in Paris on Friday to fully inform him about the EU regional approach. A declaration on the consolidation of peace in Bosnia- Herzegovina, which was presented at the conference, reflected a consensus of the Steering Committee that none of the proposed initiatives for regional cooperation would be given preference. The conference welcomed all positive initiatives, including the EU's regional approach, the South-Eastern European Cooperation Initiative, which is supported by the United States and which concentrates on the economic cooperation of countries from Slovenia to Turkey, the Central European Initiative, the Stability Treaty signed in Royaumont one year ago, and the conclusions from the meeting in Bulgaria of Balkan foreign ministers. Croatian Assistant Foreign Minister Hidajet Biscevic said that "all initiatives are well-balanced." He said that Granic emphasized in his address that Croatia supported all forms of cooperation in the region but that it would not agree to any form of regional association. Granic said that Croatia wanted to contribute to regional stabilization with its readiness for a dialogue. He stressed that the completion of the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube river region within agreed time limits was important for the stabilization. Granic held brief working meetings with US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, his assistant John Kornblum, German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, EU Chairman Dick Spring of Ireland and French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette. (hina) vm mm 141443 MET nov 96