Belgrade, May 28 - We need a clear strategic plan of both home and international institutions in order to find a lasting solution to the problem of status and integration of some 70% of refugees who want to have permanent residence in Yugoslavia, Serbian Minister of Social Policy Gordana Matkovic said Monday.

Speaking at the conference "Local Integration of Refugees in Yugoslavia", organized by the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and the Danish Council for Refugees, she said that the prerequisites for a successful local integration are finding a lasting solution to the housing problem, a lasting income source, as well as satisfying social and cultural needs of the refugees so that integration does not become assimilation.

All proper ministries have to be included in the local integration programme, Gordana Matkovic said, adding that attention should be focused on relieving the tensions in border areas inhabited by national minorities.

An important problem of the national strategy for local integration is giving equal status to the refugees and the endangered local population, the construction of new housing estates, as well as the adaptation of the existing ones, Minister Matkovic stressed.

The construction of special housing estates for refugees is supposed to take place this year, as well as the adaptation of collective accommodation centers which could become old people's homes.

Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Sanda Raskovic-Ivic pointed to the problem of integration in certain municipalities, stressing that no Belgrade municipality responded to the call for conducting local integration, although some 150.000 refugees live in Belgrade.

The conference was also attended by the representatives of the Danish Council for Refugees, the UNHCR and other international humanitarian organizations.