The protesters dispersed after talks with the chair of the parliamentary finance committee, Srdjan Gjurkovic.

After the talks, Croatian Farmers Markets Association president Niko Pervan urged everyone who had the obligation to have fiscal cash registers as of July 1 to procure them "by the deadline set by Finance Minister Slavko Linic and start working under the positive laws of the Republic of Croatia."

He also announced an action before European courts because, he said, an omission was made during the adoption of the law on fiscal cash registers and its enforcement in outdoor farmers markets and international fairs.

Traders and legal entities from the EU are prevented from selling outdoors in Croatia, which is now part of the EU area, he said.

He explained that legal persons from the EU were unable to comply with Croatia's law on fiscal cash registers because they were unable to obtain a certificate from Croatia's Financial agency, a fiscal cash register and an invoice book certified by Croatia's Tax Administration because they were not registered in Croatia.

Pervan said he was received by Gjurkovic of the ruling coalition's People's Party (HNS). He said Gjurkovic had asked in parliament that farmers market vendors be exempted from the law in question, but that his amendment was rejected.

Pervan said Gjurkovic had referred the protesting vendors to the Agriculture Ministry, and that a public discussion was now open.

Speaking to the press at the beginning of today's protest, he said the vendors' most important demand was a three-month moratorium to eliminate certain "anomalies on farmers markets". He said they wanted to bring order to the wholesale sector by eliminating cash as well as an audit of the output of family farms. He said more than 50 per cent of those farms were fake and lucky to be exempt from this law.

Police estimated that about 600 protesting vendors had rallied outside the government, while organisers said there had been 1,500.