"We all have our customs and traditions. This is a communication manner which is common in Serbia but it isn't in Croatia," Josipovic said adding that "as such it should be accepted."

"You saw for yourselves that he (Nikolic) communicates that way with everyone," Josipovic told the press after the summit of former Yugoslav republics and Albania, which was also attended by French President Francois Hollande.

The regional presidents talked about further EU enlargement, efforts to solve outstanding issues, economic cooperation and joint infrastructure projects and Hollande announced France's more active role in the Balkans.

Josipovic and Nikolic talked about their next official meeting announced for October and recent events in the region.

Josipovic said he had assured Nikolic that the conduct of the Croatian police who arrested war crimes suspects in the eastern Croatian municipality of Trpinja was a legitimate operation. It is our wish to have the ethnic Serb population in Croatia feels safe and secure and remain living in Croatia, Josipovic said.

We talked openly about everything, about recent arrests, lack of textbooks for Croat children in Serbia, genocide lawsuits filed against one another, Serbian President Nikolic told the news conference.

Nikolic said he did not see a problem in the fact that the summit in Brdo Pri Kranju was also attended by Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga. I have no right to have an issue with that. Serbia has made a deal, Belgrade and Pristina have made a deal to have Pristina take part in regional meetings, Nikolic said.

Josipovic said that such informal regional summits were very useful because their are not binding so participants can talk more openly. He announced that the next summit would be held in Croatia next spring either in Zagreb or on the Brijuni archipelago, depending on the topic.

He underlined that politicians of the countries in the region, EU aspirants, were "serious politicians" and they "know very well what is ahead of them."

"It is clear to everybody that this is a process which can last a long time. A certain number of years will go by, they know it is in their hands," he said. "They will have to work hard, but they will leave that process as a better society," Josipovic said.

Josipovic and his colleagues talked about possibilities of joint ventures on third markets.

Apart from Josipovic, Nikolic and Hollande, the summit was also attended by presidents Borut Pahor of Slovenia, Gjorge Ivanov of Macedonia, Zeljko Komsic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Filip Vujanovic of Montenegro, Bujar Nishani of Albania and Atifete Jahjaga of Kosovo.