"This has been the greatest funeral in history for a great pope who deserved it," Mesic told Croatian reporters.
Commenting on the coming election of a new pontiff, the Croatian President said that it would be hard for Karol Wojtyla's successor to reach his fame.
Pope John Paul II carried out his mission and initiated many processes, Mesic said, adding that the deceased pope had done much not only for the peoples of Europe but also for the entire world.
Responding to a reporter's remark that the Croatian delegation at the funeral was in the first rows in St Peter's Square, Mesic said that he was in the same row with French President Jacques Chirac and US President George Bush.
"We have seen our flags among the believers who have gathered here and we are proud of them," the Croatian president added.
Commenting on Pope John Paul II's position on the crisis in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Mesic said the pope had done much.
"He did us a particularly great favour because he was among the few who had realised that Yugoslavia could not be preserved and that the republics should be allowed to become independent," the Croatian president said.
"It was only after him that many statesmen also realised this. If they had realised it in time like the Pope did, I am certain that much more could have been done to stop the war," Mesic said. "But the world waited to see what would happen and this cost us much just as it did many others".