Sanader said that the government had sent the tribunal its objections, formulated by the Ministry of Justice, and that it would try to ensure withdrawal of the amendments to the indictment through dialogue with the Office of the Prosecutor.
"If that fails, we will resort to the institute of amici curiae and get involved in the trial before the Hague tribunal," the prime minister said.
Sanader said that the prosecutors went over the top with their allegations in the proposed amended indictment, and that it would be easy to refute the charges because they were absurd.
"Croatia cannot allow the legitimate, defensive war effort to be equated with the planned aggression the aim of which was to ethnically cleanse the occupied areas of Croats," the prime minister said.
He recalled that tens of thousands of Croats and other non-Serbs had been driven from the Serb-occupied areas of Croatia, which were declared UN Protected Areas, and that more than 600 people had been killed there.
The prime minister addressed Parliament in the morning at the start of its four-week sitting, although it was announced on Tuesday that he would do so in the afternoon.
A majority of 68 deputies decided that there would be no debate on the prime minister's speech; 51 voted in favour of a debate while 13 abstained.
The prime minister answered questions put by deputies during Question Time.
Asked what the government was doing to try war crimes committed against Serb civilians after Operation Storm in the summer of 1995, Sanader said that war crimes fell within the jurisdiction of the judiciary and not the government.
"The government cannot interfere in the work of the judiciary," the prime minister said.
Sanader said that the judiciary had dealt with cases against more than 4,000 persons suspected of committing "dishonourable acts", which he said were cited in the so-called White Book.
"That was not Operation Storm. Operation Storm was brilliant and magnificent and no one can cast a shadow on that operation," the prime minister stressed.
Asked what he would do to put a stop "the ongoing fierce media campaign against Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte," Sanader said that the government was not going to interfere in the editorial policy of the media.
Some of the representatives of war veterans' organisations left the public gallery in protest after the parliamentary majority rejected the Opposition request for a debate on the proposed amended indictment.
"Our generals who led us are not and cannot be criminals, and that is why we cannot tolerate that someone should be afraid of opening a debate on this subject. To declare the Homeland War criminal and its commanders and politicians war criminals is tantamount to declaring our children and us criminals," the head of an association of the parents of soldiers killed in the 1991-1995 war, Mario Marot, told reporters.