Speaking to Hina, OSCE Mission spokeswoman Antonella Cerasino said that justice ministers Vesna Skare-Ozbolt of Croatia and Slobodan Kovac of Bosnia-Herzegovina were already at Brijuni, Croatia, and that Minister Rasim Ljajic of Serbia and Montenegro was due to arrive tomorrow.
Cerasino confirmed that Belgrade first cancelled its participation in the conference, but that Ljajic eventually agreed to come.
Asked if Ljajic did so only on condition that the declaration would not be signed, the spokeswoman answered in the affirmative.
Although he is the minister for minorities' rights, Ljajic was envisaged as the signatory to the declaration because he is in charge of cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal.
Preparations for the Brijuni meeting were marred by a dispute over a provision in the draft joint declaration which envisages the possibility of the three countries mutually extraditing war crimes indictees. All three countries objected to the provision, saying it clashes with their constitutions, said Cerasino.
The biggest dispute was between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro, although Croatia too said the provision was an unacceptable infringing on the Constitution.
Cerasino said it was unlikely that the declaration would be adopted as a written document, but added that everything depended on tomorrow's talks.
She said the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe encouraged the three neighbours to examine the possibilities of defining other measures which would ensure that their citizens who committed war crimes in another country be transferred to that country for trial.
Cerasino said the transfer of war crimes indictees was very important for successful trials. She added it was irrelevant if this was called extradition or transfer.
International law prioritises processing a crime in the country where it was committed so that justice could be served as close to the victims as possible.
Ljajic's assistant Jelena Markovic told Hina earlier the minister would come to Brijuni to prove that Serbia and Montenegro "is absolutely in favour of the three countries cooperating in the processing of war crimes".
Ljajic said it was unacceptable that the OSCE had drafted the declaration the three countries were expected to sign instead of inviting the three countries' experts to draw up a text that was acceptable to all.
Cerasini underlined the most important thing was that the three above-mentioned ministers, as well as relevant ministers from Bosnia's two entities and Serbia-Montenegro, meet and agree measures for the mutual transfer of their citizens.
She concluded by saying that the ministerial conference, which would be continued at the technical level, would make a significant step forward in the judicial cooperation among the three countries
Under the draft declaration, all countries signatories to the document - namely Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina - would be obliged to consider the possibility of allowing transfers of its citizens indicted of war crimes by another country signatory to the declaration, if legally possible.