I believe it is irrelevant to discuss someone's responsibility for forwarding a document to the Hague tribunal, the president said.

All Croatian governments have cooperated with The Hague, it has been their duty and they should not be blamed for that, he said.

Maybe there were some procedural mistakes, but the essence is important, Josipovic said, stressing that he was not questioning the authenticity of certain documents. The important thing is whether the evidence was true or not and that there was no framing-up, as had been the case in the Tihomir Blaskic trial, Josipovic said.

That is what is important and not who provided which piece of evidence and other procedural issues, Josipovic said.

Asked to comment on media debates between former President Stjepan Mesic and former top state officials such as Vesna Skare Ozbolt, Miroslav Tudjman and Ivan Jarnjak, Josipovic said this kind of behaviour was unproductive.

I believe we need to focus on what is important, and that is our admission in the European Union and, of course, the social status of war veterans, social development and everything else that we politicians have to deal with, he added.

Asked to comment on the government's investigation into the delivery of the said transcripts to The Hague, Josipovic said this question should be directed at the government, adding that he neither was nor should be informed about it.