Speaking at a government session, Kosor invited the unionists to the economy ministry, reiterating that the government-sponsored amendments were in accordance with all unions' proposals, "while taking into account the moment we are living in".

"This is a very serious moment which requires social partners to accept obligations, a certain burden, but first and foremost to acknowledge one another," Kosor said, adding that "hard times call for responsible decisions".

She said she was pleased with the constitutional amendments adopted yesterday, recalling that they were launched to enable alignment and adoption of regulations required for wrapping up accession negotiations and Croatia's entry to the European Union.

Kosor announced that the government would send to parliament the adoption of laws required for alignment with EU standards from its next meeting.

She thanked all parliamentary parties for their maturity.

Kosor recalled that the Constitution provided for the application of the European arrest warrant as well as for the extradition of Croatian citizens based on other international agreements, adding the Justice Ministry would immediately begin preparations to enforce this provision.

Also today, the coordinator of the union federations, Ozren Matijasevic, said 79 per cent of the required 450,000 signatures had been collected for calling a referendum on the Labour Act amendments.

He once again called on citizens to sign the petition against the amendments which he said would destroy collective agreements, adding the unionists would not stop collecting signatures so that the people could use this "historic opportunity" to have a referendum called despite overly rigid legal provisions.

Another union leader, Vilim Ribic, said collecting 450,000 signatures was "virtually mission impossible" for all but the unions, wondering if the citizens' right to a referendum was actually impossible to exercise.

Ribic criticised the opposition parties, notably the Social Democrats (SDP), for giving up on changing the constitutional provision on the referendum, saying the SDP had turned its back on citizens and democracy.

He said that even after this referendum, the unions would continue to fight for changing the Referendum Act.

Independent Croatian Unions leader Kresimir Sever told Hina the union federations would not accept Kosor's invitation to negotiations until the collecting of signatures for the Labour Act referendum was over, saying they were obliged to do so by a decision from a recent union conference.