Prgomet said that his and Kujundzic's candidacies for party positions would be made public and submitted at the HDZ headquarters on May 5, adding that they would accept suggestions by their associates on who to nominate for individual positions.

Asked what kind of cooperation they were offering to Karamarko and Milosevic, Prgomet said that their cooperation would be based on agreement on principles on how to run the party, including the principle 'one member - one vote', and on holding intra-party elections again, after next year's local elections, on the basis of those principles.

Noting that he and Prgomet shared the same values, Kujundzic said that once they were elected to the party leadership, they would work to mobilise the party's best people in the country and abroad.

"At the moment, at least 1,500 delegates at the HDZ convention are ready to vote for changes. As for the couple hundred corrupt and blackmailed members, neither we nor the HDZ are interested in them. They are history, the party should be run by honest people with an untarnished reputation who won't be prosecuted or arrested," said Kujundzic.

He said that there were two political camps in the HDZ - the old one which he said had caused harm to the party and democracy, represented by HDZ president Jadranka Kosor and her deputy Darko Milinovic, and the new one, represented by him and Prgomet.

Asked if they would plea-bargain with the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor in the Fimi Media corruption case if elected HDZ leaders, Prgomet said only individuals could be found guilty, not the party as a whole.

The trial in the Fimi Media case, one of the biggest corruption scandals in Croatia in which the HDZ party, its former president and prime minister Ivo Sanader and several former party officials are charged with siphoning more than HRK 70 million from state institutions and companies, began on Monday.