He made the proposal on Monday in the wake of protests in the eastern town of Vukovar against the placement of Latin and Cyrillic signs on state administration buildings.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said yesterday such an initiative was not necessary because of the constitutional law on national minorities' rights, which he said should be implemented.

Asked by the press to comment on Milanovic's statement, the president said he agreed with him when it came to abiding by the law, but warned that there was a "certain disruption of inter-ethnic relations" in Croatia which prompted his proposal.

This disruption "is something we don't need, so I wanted to invite all the relevant factors to think how we can make our inter-ethnic relations stable and better. I saw from their statements that not many politicians think as I do, including the prime minister. I can only hope that they are right and not I."

Josipovic also commented on a request by the "In the Name of the Family" initiative, which collected signatures for a referendum to constitutionally define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The initiative urged him in a letter today to push for the referendum to be called within a reasonable time because they fear the government will stall the matter.

The president said he did not agree with the initiative's objective but that the referendum should be held because the requirements had been met. "The president has no competence in this matter, but I take this opportunity to stress that the constitution and the law should be respected also when it comes to the right to a referendum."