Italian President Giorgio Napolitano arrived in Croatia on Thursday for a day-long official visit during which he was scheduled to meet President Ivo Josipovic, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and Parliament Speaker Luka Bebic.
This was Napolitano's first visit to Croatia since he became president in May 2006. He had visited Croatia in 1997 in his capacity as foreign minister.
Napolitano was accompanied by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
The visit was originally planned to last two days, during which Napolitano was to visit Pula on Friday to meet with representatives of the Italian community, but was cut short because of the financial crisis in Italy. The Italian Parliament is expected to adopt an austerity budget on Friday, envisaging 47 billion euros in cuts by 2014.
Josipovic has met Napolitano several times. They last met in Rome on June 2 at a ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification.
