France provides full support to Croatia becoming the 28 th member of the European Union, said Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Thursday in Paris, after meeting with his French counterpart Francois Fillon.

- With great interest, I heard PM Fillon express support to Croatia, that it has to become the 28 th EU member. Fillon announced that the President of France Nicolas Sarkozy would tell me the same thing on Monday – Sanader said after meeting with the French PM.

The Croatian PM was supposed to have met with French President Sarkozy on Thursday afternoon, but the meeting was postponed for Monday as the French head of state had other obligations.

The two PMs exchanged views about the economic and financial crisis, Croatian EU accession negotiations, NATO membership and the situation in Croatian neighbourhood.

Sanader said Fillon was interested in every detail of the outstanding border issue with Slovenia.

- I told him our position and said it was best that it is solved the legal way. We expect the negotiations to be deblocked soon, bilateral issues should not be an obstacle for any country on its path towards the EU. This principle was affirmed in the EU and we expect it to be implemented in the this case as well – Sanader said.

Sanader announces meeting Slovene PM

When asked if Fillon supported the political or legal solution of the border dispute, Sanader was brief:

- You know that this is not discussed in diplomacy, especially on the highest levels. I will let PM Fillon say this. I can say that I`m pleased with the conversation – Croatian Prime Minister Sanader said.

He also announced that he will be meeting his Slovene counterpart Borut Pahor next week “if we agree on the exact time, place and term”.

Sanader believes that Slovenia additionally added fuel to the fire with a statement saying Slovenia had access to the open sea as the country declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

- Last night the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted to that conclusion of the Slovene Parliament and I expect the Croatian Parliament to respond soon. This is absolutely not correct and I believe it only adds fuel to the fire. What is not good is that Slovenia is causing additional problems over our NATO membership, regardless of the fact that the Parliament has ratified the protocol, and actually, it causes problems for itself.