BRUSSELS (AFP) – NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned Croatia yesterday that it still has work to do if it hopes to receive an invitation at a summit in April to eventually join the military alliance. “There are still no guarantees as we speak at the moment,” he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, after talks with visiting Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. “Croatia has still to go those final miles.” Scheffer said that Sanader, at a meeting of alliance ambassadors earlier yesterday, “got a strong signal of appreciation on what has been achieved on the road to NATO membership.”

SOFIA (AP) – Plagued by electricity shortages, Bulgaria yesterday announced it was considering plans to reopen nuclear reactors it had to shut down before joining the European Union a year ago. The two Russian-made units at Bulgaria’s only nuclear plant, Kozloduy, were switched off just hours before the Balkan country joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. “We are holding active diplomatic talks to achieve the necessary support to prolong the life of Kozloduy’s units 3 and 4,” Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said. He did not elaborate but said reopening the reactors was a “clear political choice of the government.” The move would require approval from the other 26 EU members.

Germany granted Albania a total of 8.5 million euros ($12.7 million) in aid for a major national park and an urban canal network, the Albanian Finance Ministry said yesterday. A ministry statement said 3.5 million euros ($5.3 million) would be used to improve management of the park around Prespa Lake, 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Tirana, on Albania’s border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece. The remaining 5 million euros ($7.4 million) is earmarked to improve the urban canal network at the Pogradec tourist resort on Lake Ohrid, 140 kilometers (85 miles) east of Tirana. (AP)

Slovenian PM Janez Jansa vowed yesterday to focus on “substance” rather than style at the helm of the European Union, with his country’s EU presidency overshadowed by that of France. “Perhaps our presidency will not be as grandiose as the French, will not have as much coverage as the German. Perhaps our administration does not have such an excellent tradition as the British,” he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “But we certainly promise we will work in a responsible fashion.” (AFP)