"It was difficult, but eventually everything pays off. Since 2000 onwards, the state leadership has decided to respect the international law and cooperate with the Hague tribunal, otherwise we might have lost Europe completely," Josipovic said in an interview with the commercial NOVA TV on Saturday evening.

Asked about Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic's claims that Friday's acquittal of the two Croatian generals was a politically motivated ruling, Josipovic said he would rather not comment on that.

"The views on the past from this bank of the Danube perhaps will never be equal to the views from the other bank," the Croatian president said reiterating the importance on working on reconciliation.

The Croatian head of state said he hoped that a step closer to consensus would be made after the expiry of Nikolic's term in office.

"Now, we can't really agree on the Croatian Homeland Defence War, notably on Vukovar," Josipovic said.

He underlined that the acquittal rendered by the tribunal underpinned the fact that Croatia's defending forces liberated Croatia's territories and they were not a joint criminal enterprise.

Asked about the impressions the two acquitted generals left on him when he received them on Friday evening upon their return from the ICTY's detention centre where they had been held for years in custody, Josipovic said that there had been no embitterment, let alone hatred.

"I think that they comprehend the entire context of all those developments, and that they comprehend that office-holders, police and judicial officials who worked on their location (and transfer to the Hague tribunal) not only pursued the state policy but enforced the law, and that it would be wrong to hold a grudge against them," Josipovic said describing the two generals as firm and determined men just as they were in the war.