"Plans are being announced for yet another dysfunctional and harmful state budget," Milanovic said after a two-hour meeting at SDP headquarters with HNS leaders Radimir Cacic and Vesna Pusic, Croatian Pensioners' Party (HSU) president Silvano Hrelja, and Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) vice-president Damir Kajin.

Milanovic said this was a regular meeting of opposition parties focusing on current topics regarding the economy, the fight against corruption, the judiciary and the government's 2011 budget projections.

When asked when he expected a joint platform of the opposition coalition to be formalised, given that parliamentary elections were to be held in a year, Milanovic said: "Serious people in serious parties hold talks, the content of those talks contains a kind of commitment, and such talks have been going on for a year and a half."

HNS chief Radimir Cacic said the government's budget projections for 2011 showed that the government lacked any ambition or plan as to how to revive the economy.

Commenting on the government's projection of the 2011 budget envisaging expenses of HRK 122 billion and revenues of HRK 108 billion, with the deficit totalling HRK 14 billion, he said that it showed that in 2011 Croatia "would sink" by an additional two billion euros.

"The government's projection of economic growth envisages absolutely the lowest growth in Europe. We need a growth rate of 5-6 percent in order to pay interest, and the government's optimistic forecast is 1.5 percent. In other words, the difference is 4-5 percent and that will be the debt," Cacic said.

When asked if the current economic situation heralded the arrival of the IMF in 2011, Cacic said Croatia had needed the IMF for quite some time. "Unfortunately, the government has no idea of what it is saying or doing. Anyway, (Croatian National Bank Governor Zeljko) Rohatinski has already said it, and everything he said is true."

Reporters asked Milanovic to comment on the situation in the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party in the light of reports of alleged syphoning of money from state-owned companies and its transfer to the ruling party.

The SDP leader said he did not like to comment on speculation, adding that what he read in the newspapers seemed "almost unbelievable", to which Damir Kajin of the IDS said that nothing regarding the current developments seemed unbelievable.

"Here is my hypothetical answer to your question - in a normal democratic party, it is impossible for someone to come with a bag of money, regardless of whether it is the party's treasurer, and to stash it away in the party's safe. To me, it seems unbelievable, but the truth remains to be seen," Milanovic said.

The press also wanted to know if this opposition group would be willing to support a request by former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who is now an independent member of parliament, to establish a parliamentary commission to investigate the role of Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and Parliament Deputy Speaker Vladimir Seks in what Sanader described as an attempt to pressure the judiciary into falsely accusing him of corruption.

"That's entirely irrelevant and a job for the police. If there is anything to it, at the current stage of that political-judicial story that has been going on for weeks, it is a job for the police," Milanovic said.