PRESS REPORT FROM SLOVENIA

Ljubljana, 18 January - DELO: OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE - WITH SYMPATHIES - The Italian president Francesco Cossiga was more than just an envoy of Italian authorities in their relations with Slovenia and Croatia. He was more than a formal representative of a country which hesitated to give recognition to the new state. When he introduced morality into Italian politics and was, beside Chancellor Kohl, the only head of state capable of distinguishing between aggressors and defenders in Yugoslavia, he spoke in his own name. Yet he helped shape a path which forbade anybody in Italy, and the rest of Europe, to hesitate any longer, comments Delo's reporter in Rome Mojca Drčar - Murko.