After the wreath-laying ceremony, the incumbent HDZ president, Tomislav Karamarko, said that as time elapsed since Tudjman's death, the importance of his role was increasing.

"Now when we are about to enter the European Union, there is a real awareness of what it means to have one's own country... We can only now be aware how much wisdom and courage was needed to make the right moves," Karamarko said praising the first Croatian president for what he had done for the establishment of the independent Republic of Croatia.

The HDZ chief said that each European people had leaders of historic importance in the 20th century and for Croatians that was Franjo Tudjman.

Homeland Defence War veterans' associations, generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, and many other citizens today placed wreaths on Tudjman's grave.

Asked by reporters about how he today perceived Tudjman's role, Gotovina said that Tudjman was the wartime president who organised the armed forces that liberated Croatia.

"The freed homeland embarked on a road of democracy, it became a NATO member and will soon be an EU member. He was with us, at the beginning of that (process)," Gotovina said.

Asked whether his acquittal by the Hague-based UN tribunal was also the clearance of Franjo Tudjman and Croatia of accusations, General Gotovina said that his acquittal was a joint victory.

General Markac praised Tudjman for having deserved the biggest credit for present-day free Croatia.

A delegation of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), led by the party president Branko Hrg, also laid a wreath on Tudjman's grave.