"I call on both sides to refrain from any kind of provocation, because local elections are forthcoming in Slovenia and next year Croatia will have parliamentary elections, so there are always reasons for politicking," Sanader said at the start of a government session on Thursday.
Sanader said his government would know how to respond and protect Croatian national interests in the European spirit of cooperation and solidarity.
He said that the purpose of a dyke on the Mura river was to protect people on either side of the border against flooding, and noted that cooperation between Croatia and Slovenia in building the dyke would not prejudge border demarcation.
"Before the border along the Mura river is finally defined, it is important to build an embankment to protect the population on either side of the border against flooding," the prime minister said.
Sanader reiterated that Croatia and Slovenia were friendly countries and good neighbours, that they had been so while they were members of the Yugoslav federation and that they would also be friends within the European Union, but stressed that "friendship will not be bought with territory".
He recalled that the problem of border demarcation was inherited from the former Yugoslavia.
"If we are unable to settle our disputes bilaterally, we will not be the first or the last to go to international arbitration to deal with them," Sanader concluded.
Meanwhile, Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel has sent a letter to European Foreign Policy and Security Commissioner Javier Solana and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn in connection with the border crossing incident.
According to a Slovene Foreign Ministry statement, Rupel wrote that Croatia, by taking unilateral action, wanted to achieve such a border between the two countries as would suit its desires in the area where the border has not yet been defined, and that Slovenia found that unacceptable.