Speaking to the press after the meeting, Jansa said the talks had been very constructive because much of what had seemed difficult to resolve before now looked different.
He said that although the outstanding issues were not crucial for the two countries, the important thing was that he and Sanader had identified ways of resolving them to mutual satisfaction over a realistic period of time.
The meeting was Jansa's first with Sanader since coming into office. He said they had made a list of all outstanding issues, agreeing that state secretaries should arrange official meetings between the foreign and prime ministers at which they would try to find solutions.
Jansa congratulated Sanader on what he said was Croatia's very important and good date for the start of EU entry talks, stressing that Slovenia would continue to actively support Croatia on the road to the European Union.
The Croatian PM said there were more things that linked rather than divided Croatia and Slovenia, that this had been the case in the past and would continue to be in the future.
"The few outstanding issues we have aren't the product of Croatia or Slovenia as independent countries, but our legacy from the former (Yugoslav) federation," said Sanader.
He added that both sides were willing to resolve outstanding issues and agreed that those issues could not cast a shadow on the good relations between the two peoples and countries.
Sanader said he and Jansa had agreed it was necessary to define concrete conclusions as soon as possible. For the first time he publicly commended Slovenia's proposal for the establishment of a joint historical commission which he added would not make political assessments or put proposals to the two governments, but establish the real historical relations and cooperation with regard to the common past.
Sanader said the commission's findings might be relevant for some of the current problems and make the public in the two countries more sensitive to what he said had been a mostly positive common past.
At today's meeting the two prime ministers concluded that an agreement should be drawn up on the avoidance of incidents in the northern Adriatic Savudrija Bay (aka Piran Bay), which Sanader said should include the main aspects of the regime which had prevented incidents in the border bay until May 2004, when it went out of force.
The two officials also concluded that work should be completed on an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation, and that the two governments should hold a joint session in the first half of this year. "We will try to take some concrete steps and finish work on some of those agreements, and perhaps arrive at a solution to some of the outstanding issues," said Sanader.
Asked by the press if today's talks had addressed the settlement of the border issue or Ljubljanska Banka's debt to Croatian depositors, both prime ministers answered in the affirmative.
Jansa said that Slovenia's new Government, unlike the previous one, did not reject the idea of arbitration on the border but considered it one of the possible solutions. Both officials said that before arbitration, more effort should be invested in settling outstanding issues bilaterally, and go to arbitration only if that failed.
Jansa said the EU need not or could not play an important part in the settlement of Croatian-Slovene issues. He said the EU would provide a more harmonious framework, but that both countries wished to settle their problems bilaterally, without bothering the Union.