Sanader held a special press conference at HDZ headquarters in Zagreb, hisfirst since he resigned in July.

He said Hebrang's election result was the worst result the HDZ had achievedon the national level since its foundation in 1989.

"The responsibility for that does not lie only with the candidate, butit also shows confusion in leading the party," Sanader said, adding thathe was also partly responsible for the election result because of his decisionto withdraw from active politics.

Sanader said the main reason for his withdrawal from politics was hisrefusal "to sell Croatian territory for EU membership."

"The HDZ is a victorious party and not a party of 12 per cent," hesaid, announcing that he would fully activate the powers accorded to him by theparty's statute.

Sanader said there was a deficit in running the party's main bodies, addingthat under the statute those bodies should be running the party between twoparty conventions. He said that the main bodies were not meeting, so he urgedHDZ President Jadranka Kosor to convene those bodies, in which he, as theparty's honorary president, has the right to vote.

"I have not used my powers so far, but I will from now on," Sanadersaid. He added that he had not discussed the matter with Kosor because hethought it was the role of the party's president.

Sanader called upon the HDZ Presidency to publicly support one of the tworemaining presidential candidates. "The party must declare its position onimportant political issues," he said, adding that a lot of HDZ memberswere calling him to ask who to vote for in the election runoff next Sunday.

Asked by reporters who he would vote for, Sanader said he would support thecandidate that received the backing of the HDZ Presidency.

Sanader rejected claims by Hebrang that heads of HDZ county branches wereopposed to Sanader's involvement in the presidential campaign.

"Several presidents of county organisations called me and I spoke to someon my own initiative. Among them were also some of the ministers running thecounty organisations and they said it was not true," Sanader said.

Asked whether the presence at the press conference of about 15 HDZ members,including Parliament Speaker Luka Bebic, meant that there was a rift within theparty's parliamentary caucus, he said such a rift was impossible, explainingthat people came to the HDZ headquarters to ask what was going on.

Sanader rejected claims that he was weakening Kosor's position. "Thisis not weakening Jadranka Kosor, but strengthening the HDZ," he said,adding that he supported the government's work as he recognised in it"policies laid down before the 2007 election."

Asked if he intended to run for party president again, Sanader said he wasnot thinking about it.

He rejected media reports of his involvement in a scandal relating to thesale of the Hypo Alpe Adria bank and the operation of the state-owned postalsavings bank HPB, as well as claims about his involvement in corruption."If there had been any truth in it, do you think I would have resignedfrom the most powerful position in the country?"

Sanader confirmed he was considering reactivating his term as a member ofParliament by January 15 when the deadline for that expires.