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Albright arrives

in Croatia

ZAGREB: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived here early on Friday armed with a message of support for new Croatian President Stipe Mesic and hopes that his success will prove an example in neighbouring Serbia.

Albright, making a rare second visit to a country in less than a month, is to attend Nesic's inauguration, but will also hold talks with Serb opposition leaders who are beginning to overcome deep divisions to mount a united front against Slobodan Milsovevic.

Washington has high hopes that the fractured Serb opposition can manage to do what their reformist Croatian colleagues did in January when they took control of parliament, then earlier this month when they took the executive branch from supporters of the late former nationalist authoritarian president Franjo Tudjman.

US officials travelling with the secretary were effusive in their praise of the new Croatian leadership, who they said had shown signs of their seriousness in reform even before Mesic was to be inaugurated.

They noted an improvement in ties between Croatia and Bosnia, a reaching out toward the European Union and Nato as well as increased cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and seriousness in dealing with the Serb refugee problem.ÑAFP