Yugoslav PM in Rome talks

YUGOSLAVIA'S Prime Minister, Branko Mikulic, discussed church-state relations with Pope John Paul II and other Vatican officials during a private visit to the Vatican last week. Yugoslavian diplomatic sources said afterwards that both sides had agreed to work to create a climate favourable to a possible papal visit to the Mediterranean country.
The Pope's meeting with Mikulic, president of Yugoslavia's Federal Executive Council, lasted half an hour, the Vatican said. The two men discussed church rights in the communist country and reviewed in particular the 1966 protocol that restored some freedom to the Church, diplomatic sources said.
Afterward, Mikulic and other officials held longer discussions with Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Achille Silvestrini, secretary of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church.
The sources said it was made clear that Yugoslavia's standing invitation for a papal visit remains. They said it was also agreed that individual cases of church-state conflict should be seen as "personal" or local and not be allowed to mar overall relations. Other topics discussed included disarmament and the Middle East.
Accompanying Mikulic were 11 other officials, including Yugoslavia's Foreign Minister and its ambassador to the Holy See. Yugoslavia is the only East European communist country that has full diplomatic relations with the Vatican.