The state television RTS said the two presidents laid wreaths at the Ovcara mass grave memorial site and that Tadic regretted the innocent victims and apologised.

"I came here to apologise and express regret," Tadic said, stressing that he came to Ovcara to pay his respects to the victims in the belief that the new generations must be relieved of the burden of war, RTS reported on its web portal.

The B92 portal reported that the two presidents said in Vukovar that they were determined to pursue the policy of reconciliation between the two nations and states.

Their message was that their decision to visit Ovcara and Paulin Dvor, sites of the suffering of both peoples, showed that no force could prevent them from completing the reconciliation process, said B92.

The print media said on their websites that Tadic's visit was the first by a Serbian president to Vukovar since 1991.

Representatives of ruling coalition parties and some experts, according to Belgrade's media, applauded Tadic's visit to Vukovar, while opposition representatives, with the exception of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said it was unnecessary and harmful to Serbia.

Comments on the visit ranged from those that it was a big step for relations between the two countries and relations in the region, to those that it was unfair to the Serb people and humiliating for Serb victims.

LDP president Cedomir Jovanovic said Tadic should be praised and that Serbia was unable to understand Tadic's move properly. Tadic's deed relieves future generations, he added.

The chief of the "For a European Serbia" parliamentary caucus, Nada Kolundzija, said Tadic's visit to Vukovar far exceeded the interest to improve Serbia-Croatia relationS, that it reflected on the entire region, and that Tadic was showing in the best way that Serbia was not as it had been in the 1990s at all.

Kolundzija said the visit was a huge step forward and proof of great statesmanly responsibility which would help improve Serbia-Croatia relations.

On the other hand, the opposition Democratic Party of Serbia said Tadic's act was illogical and historically unjustified, as Serbs were the biggest victims of wars in the 20th century, and that Tadic was not historically or politically called upon to solve this issue in this way.

The Serb Radical Party said Tadic's visit to Vukovar was a humiliation for Serbian citizens as well as the Serb victims of the 1990s wars.

The director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and an eminent expert on international relations, Vojin Dimitrijevic, described Tadic's decision as very brave, telling Beta news agency that Tadic was lucky to have a partner in Croatian President Josipovic, as the whole thing would not have worked without Josipovic.