Asked if Koncar's giving up on the privatisation of the Rijeka-based dock had been expected, Cacic told reporters outside the government headquarters that it had been announced and that it had not surprised the government.

He would not say if Koncar's bids for the Brodotrogir and Kraljevica shipyards were acceptable to the government, adding only that the government would discuss it.

Cacic also would not say if the inner cabinet had made a political decision on those bids or the further course of shipyard privatisation.

Asked if today any decision had been made on the future of the petrochemical company Dioki, Cacic said that Dioki was a private company, wondering why the question was being addressed to him.

When asked if he did not think that the government should become involved because hundreds of Dioki workers could lose their jobs, Cacic said the government cared about workers more than anyone else in the country "because it is its job to do so."

A delegation of Dioki employees led by union commissioner Josip Pavelic was waiting outside the government headquarters today, demanding that they be received for talks and told if the ministers and Dioki's creditors had agreed on how to help solve the current crisis in their company. They talked on the telephone with government officials several times, but they did not manage to enter the government headquarters.