Protest organiser Zvonko Pipic said the farmers unblocked the roads because the police had announced they would punish everyone involved in the road blockade.

"We don't want any trouble, we want everything to be according to the law," Pipic said, adding that the protesters would regroup at their existing locations.

Pipic said that there were some 200 tractors parked alongside the roads and that he expected more protesters to join them in the course of the day.

The police said they were tolerant of the protesters although they were in violation of the Public Assembly Act and the Road Safety Act as soon as they blocked the roads, because public protests may not be held on state roads, and added that they could no longer allow the constitutional rights of people to use the state roads being violated by farmers' protests.

In eastern Vukovar-Srijem County, farmers from the Union of Farmers temporarily unblocked the roads at Jarmina, Gradiste and Bosnjaci.

Union leader Tomislav Pokrovac said many people were using the roads on Sunday to visit their family members and friends being treated in hospital in Vinkovci and that farmers did not want to force people to use alternative routes to get to Vinkovci.

"In this way we show that we are cooperative and open to dialogue. We expect the government to acknowledge this and contact us so we can try to solve the accumulated problems in agriculture together," Pokrovac told media.

The Union of Farmers demands payment of the full amount of grants to crop farmers, livestock breeders and fishermen. It also demands that the price of blue-dyed diesel be the same for fishermen and farmers (four kuna per litre), that the bank accounts of all farmers be unfrozen and that a national strategy for agricultural production be drawn up for the next 10 years.