"We managed to, I managed to keep the promise that the negotiations would be completed by the end of June," Kosor said, adding that she knew this made the opposition extremely nervous.

"The HDZ-led government completed the negotiations and no matter how hard they try, they won't be able to dispute or erase this fact from Croatia's history," she said when asked by the press to comment on Croatian People's Party official Vesna Pusic's statement earlier today that EU accession was some sort of trophy for the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union).

Kosor said she expected the accession treaty to be signed soon, adding that everything was going as planned.

"They obviously opted for a platform that disputes everything, to talk about misery, sorrow, trouble and everything they think will make voters vote for them."

Kosor said the agricultural fair in Gudovac showed an increase of 15 per cent, that some companies were logging 30-percent growth rates, adding that in the first year of EU accession, Croatia would receive EUR 800 million and in the first two years nearly EUR 3.5 billion.

"That's this government's success," she said, thanking everyone who had helped.

Kosor went on to say that the stories coming from the opposition were "stories with no programme or vision" which recalled the time when they were in power, reducing government employees' salaries by 40 percent and war veterans' rights by 60 percent.

She reiterated that the government had to pay HRK 3 billion in damages in the wake of lawsuits filed because of those cuts. "And (they did) all that when GDP growth was 5.4 per cent and there was no world crisis, when, in their last year in power, unemployment exceeded 320,000 and when the deficit was 5.4 per cent, which they serviced by selling everything that could be sold."

Asked if too many were employed in the state administration, Kosor said she only heard from the Social Democratic Party that they would lay off 80 per cent of the state administration.

"We believe that the 2 for 1 project (one hiring for two layoffs) should be carried out, which we announced in the economic recovery programme, and we are doing it," she said, thanking everyone in the state administration, saying that without them the entry talks with the EU would not have been completed.

Asked if her ministers were avoiding President Ivo Josipovic, given that Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic did not attend the opening of the Gudovac fair yesterday, Kosor said she did not engage in gossip and that she "won't fall into the trap of gossip politics."

She said the fact that half the government had met with Josipovic about the ailing Dalmacijavino company had not reached the public.