Mesic said in a press release that after being faced with often tendentious, biased and unprofessional reports which mention his name in the context of the investigation into the Patria case, he felt compelled to inform the public that he had never taken part in the decision making process concerning Patria's armoured vehicles or in any way influenced any of the seven members of the state commission.

"This does not mean that I was not informed about the process, on the contrary I received representatives of both producers, usually accompanied by ambassadors of their respective countries and presented me, as the supreme commander, with their product. But I repeat, I never influenced anyone in the process of making the final decision, nor did I participate in it," Mesic said.

He dismissed in the strongest terms all insinuations which could mislead the public to believe that he was being investigated. He accused the media of writing articles and publishing photographs which suggest that Mesic was suspected of this alleged graft.

Mesic also claims he had information about who was behind the media manipulation, but that for the sake of the country's stability he would not go public with that.

He said Croatia unfortunately had a large number of real scandals and that the country did not need fabricated scandals.

Mesic also said police should have no problem investigating who had visited the President's Office when he was Croatia's head of state.

"I did not take a register of visitors with me and I am not trying to hide that receiving citizens and state officials, as well as representatives of Croatian and foreign companies was part of my job. I have always been open to the public and I remain open even today. But I refute in the strongest terms all political and media setups aimed at pulling me into something which is still being investigated and which I had no part in," Mesic said in the statement.

The media reported early this week that the crime police investigation into the alleged bribery of Croatian officials during the 2007 purchase of armoured vehicles from Finland's biggest arms manufacturer Patria led to the President's Office.

Croatian Television and Jutarnji List daily cited an unnamed source who confirmed that the police had requested a registry of visitors in the President's Office when Mesic used to be the president.

This way, Jutarnji List said, the police wanted to verify allegation made by Wolgang Riedl, Patria's go-between person during the sale of armoured vehicles in Slovenia and for a short period of time in Croatia as well, about meetings that allegedly took place in the Office of the President during the time when Stjepan Mesic was in office.

Riedl told investigators the names of people in Croatia to whom he gave bribes, after which investigators started checking his claims.

The media claims that the Office of the President was included the the process of purchasing armoured vehicles and that Mesic, as the supreme commander, was very well informed of the events and that given his position he could have directly influenced the selection of the weapons providers.