2005-2015, which has been initiated by the World Bank and Open Society Institute.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said Roma were the biggest ethnic minority in Europe, while the chief of the government's Office for Ethnic Minorities, Milena Klajner, said the European Union would set up a Roma directorate in Brussels.
Croatia will earmark 60 million kuna for the action plan over the next 10 years. The EU will assist it with EUR2.6 million in 2006 and another five million in 2007.
The funds will mainly be used to deal with Roma problems in education, health, employment and housing.
Only 14 students attending Croatian universities declare themselves as Roma, only seven per cent of Roma pupils enrol in secondary school and only 3.5 per cent finish it.
The government said it was satisfied with the performance of the Council for Ethnic Minorities, which in 2004 was given 22 million kuna from the national budget and this year has been given 10 per cent more.
Also today the government was agreed that it was necessary to amend the arms law and reduce the existing 10-year period between regular medical checkups of persons permitted to own a weapon.
The amendments have been moved by Deputy PM Jadranka Kosor, who called on war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress to hand over their weapons.
The amendments have been moved as part of the establishment of a national commission for arms and ammunition, whose chairman is Assistant Foreign and European Integration Minister Tomislav Vidosevic.
The government also adopted a national programme of information security and its implementation plan for this year.
(EUR1 = 7.5 kuna)