HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------Croatian foreign minister to visit to Belgrade
ZAGREB, April 8 (Reuters) - Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula will pay his first visit to Belgrade later this month to discuss borders and economic cooperation more than a decade after the two countries parted ways, an official said on Monday.
Picula is scheduled to meet his Yugoslav counterpart, Goran Svilanovic, on April 23, a foreign ministry official told Reuters.
"They are expected to discuss borders, police and economic cooperation, a draft free trade agreement and the fight against organised crime," the official said.
Croatia left the Yugoslav federation in 1991, but minority Serbs, backed by Belgrade, opposed its independence in a bloody war that lasted until 1995.
The two countries, which are both no ruled by reformers, formally recognised each other in 1996 but contacts have remained largely frozen until recently.
Svilanovic, whose loose reformist alliance ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, visited Zagreb last December.
However, Croatia, where a pro-Western coalition came to power in January 2000, has kept new Yugoslav rulers at arms' length, demanding that Belgrade hands over suspects to the Hague war crimes tribunal and makes a formal apology for its role in the 1991-1995 war.
The European Union has encouraged both countries to improve ties and promote regional cooperation.
A top Croatian business delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Slavko Linic, visited Belgrade in March to speed up the resumption of economic ties.
A number of Croatian firms are keen to expand into the larger Yugoslav market, where they were present until 1991.
05:22 04-08-02
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