Slovaks Want Own U.N. Representative : Nationalism: Scant progress is made in talks with Czechs. Slovak leaders insist on referendum on federation’s future.

Czech and Slovak leaders made scant progress Thursday in talks to decide the future of their federation, with Slovaks springing the news that they want their own representatives in international organizations, including the United Nations.

The Slovak delegation insisted, however, that any final dissolution of the federation could come only after a referendum presents the question to Slovak voters, a plebiscite they insisted could not take place for at least six months.

Vaclav Klaus, who was tapped to lead the new federal government in the wake of last weekend’s elections, voiced a growing impatience on the Czech side.

“They keep talking about a referendum in six months,” he said sharply at a news conference with the Slovak delegation at the headquarters of his Civic Democratic Party (ODS), in Prague. “The prolongation of this uncertainty is unacceptable. A referendum can be speeded up.” He said the continuing impasse is damaging politically and economically to both the Czech and Slovak republics.

Both sides agreed to continue the talks Sunday in the Slovak capital of Bratislava. Michal Kovac, one of the deputies in the Slovak delegation, said the talks will probably continue through next week.

“We hope we can have the structure and the organs of the federal government worked out in two weeks,” he said when journalists asked him if a deadline had been set for an agreement.

The Slovak negotiators represent the HZDS party (Movement for a Democratic Slovakia), headed by Vladimir Meciar, who did not appear at the press conference after Thursday’s nine-hour session. The HZDS won about 37% of the Slovak vote in the federal election.

On the Czech side, the elections were won by Klaus’ ODS, which won about 33% of the vote with a campaign to continue its fast-track economic reform policies.

The new element in the talks Thursday was the Slovak side’s insistence on a referendum to finally decide the question of a continuation of some form of joint nation.

“HZDS campaigned on a pledge to work for a looser form of a federation,” said Milan Knezko, an HZDS deputy. “Our goal is not the disintegration of the Czechoslovak state. Our goal is a fundamental change in the relationship with the Czech state.”

“We came with the conception of a looser federation of two sovereign republics,” said Kovac, “and if this is unacceptable to our partner, as we explained to them, then this is something that has to be decided by the citizens.”

At times, the two sides sparred verbally, suggesting the gap that still has to be bridged.

“They keep talking about a joint state,” said Miroslav Marcek, a Klaus aide, “but the model they present is not a joint state.”

The Klaus team said it heard for the first time in the Thursday session that the Slovaks, even if they remain in a “looser” state with the Czechs, want their own representatives to the United Nations and other international bodies.

The Klaus team in the negotiations now seems to be the side applying the pressure, as a feeling of impatience grows among the Czechs that the Slovaks are becoming a troublesome burden.

The Slovaks seem to be playing for time, prolonging the issue by suggesting a referendum in six months, during which time they would continue to receive the economic benefits of a joint federal budget. Presumably the uncertainty would give them some economic leverage in the constant struggle over fiscal issues.

The Klaus team now seems determined to resolve the issue, to avoid what one politician this week called “high-level blackmail.”

At one point in the press conference, Klaus snapped in response to a Slovak comment, “We are not bound to wait indefinitely.”