Prime Minister Václav Klaus and his Slovak counterpart Vladimír Mečiar told a news conference at the end of a six- hour meeting in the Slovak spa Piestany that they had initiated talks on solving two property issues by the end of this year. "We have expressed our political will to solve the exchange of shares of the Czech Komercni banka and the Slovak VUB bank," Klaus said. The Czech and Slovak Republics agreed to split former state assets under a formula giving Prague two thirds and Bratislava one third of the property. Under the agreement, the Slovak privatisation agency NPF obtained about a 15 percent stake in Komercni Banka which is the largest Czech commercial bank. The Czech NPF also holds around 33 percent in the largest Slovak commercial bank VUB. "We shall also start talks on solving the problem of the gold held by the Czech National Bank," Klaus added. The Czech National Bank is currently holding 15 tonnes of Slovak gold in lieu of the settlement of claims between the two republics. Mečiar said the talks had covered a wide range of subjects, including an exchange of information on political and economic events in the two countries, views on bilateral problems and the international politics and the settlement of mutual property claims. "We agreed that the property question is important but should not become the top priority in our mutual relations," Mečiar said. "We made some progress, but did not solve many open questions, but our aim is to discuss them when we mutually agree on this," Mečiar added. Outstanding property questions include Slovakia`s demand for a part of the national airline CSA and an ocean-going merchant fleet. Klaus and Mečiar negotiated the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia when they became prime ministers of the two republics in 1992 elections. The two countries have prepared for talks between the two leaders several times but, for a variety of reasons, the meeting has always been cancelled.