Milanovic: Slovenia won't be last to ratify Croatia's EU accession treaty

ZAGREB, Sept 28 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Friday he believed that Slovenia would not be the last country to ratify Croatia's EU accession treaty.

"As far as we are concerned, we have met all our commitments. Now it's up to others who have also undertaken to ratify the Croatian accession treaty to do so," Milanovic told the commercial television network Nova TV when asked how he was going to deal with the problem of Slovenia's firm position that the issue of Croatian savings deposits in the now-defunct Slovenian bank Ljubljanska Banka was a problem relating to succession to the former Yugoslavia and not a bilateral problem.

"We believe that our neighbours will not be the last," Milanovic said, noting that the ratification process was proceeding well and that so far the treaty had been ratified by about 15 states.

He was speaking from New York just hours before his first address to the United Nations General Assembly in his capacity as Prime Minister of Croatia.

When asked if he planned to meet Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa while in New York, Milanovic said he would leave New York immediately after his speech in the General Assembly.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec said on Thursday that Croatia was constantly changing its position on Ljubljanska Banka and for that reason he was not too optimistic that the two countries' financial experts would find a solution to the problem.

Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said in a comment on Erjavec's statement that Croatia had an absolutely consistent position on the issue as opposed to Ljubljana which she said changed its view every two weeks. She reiterated that Croatia was ready to resolve the Ljubljanska Banka issue, and that that issue and the ratification of Croatia's EU accession treaty were in no way related.