"The entire EU accession process should not be a victim of reactions on the local level," Pusic told reporters in the Parliament building after a meeting of the National Committee. She was asked to comment on a statement by the Mayor of Rijeka, Vojko Obersnel, that it would be acceptable to prolong EU membership talks for a year provided that the Croatian shipyards were restructured during that time.

Pusic said that ideas of halting the EU accession process, which she said were coming from different sides, at present would delay any serious restructuring of the shipyards and any chance of survival of those companies in the uncertain future.

"It is this kind of behaviour that has brought the shipyards into the present situation in the first place," she warned, adding that EU membership for Croatia was a matter of building a normal and functioning state.

When asked if the government's giving of guarantees to Rijeka's 3. Maj shipyard could jeopardise the accession process, Pusic said she hoped this would not be the case.

"Now that it's been done, I hope we will get away with it. But the fact remains that we have been delaying the restructuring of the shipyards since 2006, only to get into the present situation at the eleventh hour, which certainly does not contribute to our credibility in negotiations," she said.

Last week the government gave the 3. Maj shipyard guarantees for the construction of two tankers for the Swedish client Wisby Tankers AB, even though in accession negotiations with the European Commission Croatia has been given benchmarks that forbid receiving orders until a restructuring programme has been adopted and approved.

The government justified its decision by saying that the contracts for the construction of the tankers had been signed before Croatia received benchmarks for Chapter 8 - Competition Policy.

Before the government issued the guarantees, the Rijeka City Council had decided that it would issue 24.5 million US dollars in guarantees for the construction of the tankers.

Pusic said that the government issued the guarantees only after it was blackmailed from Rijeka.

"The government was under an obligation to restructure the shipyards in 2006, which it has not done to date. We have received benchmarks forbidding receipt of orders until a restructuring programme has been adopted and approved. So there's no doubt that the government is responsible for this situation and it probably would not have responded like this had it not felt responsible," Pusic said.