"I want to help the normalisation and improvement of our bilateral relations and thus the creation of conditions in which the Croatian minority will find it easier to win and then exercise its rights," Mesic said addressing the 15th anniversary of the Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina.
Mesic said he had not forgotten Croatia's constitutional duty to provide for Croats living abroad. "Your position won't and can't improve through confrontation but only through the good relations between the two states."
Serbian President Boris Tadic, who attended the anniversary as a guest of honour, thanked Croats in Serbia for being loyal citizens and said he expected the same loyalty from Serbs living in Croatia.
"The protection of Serbs in Croatia and the protection of the Croat minority in Vojvodina is one of the vital issues of our future, of our prospects, and only by changing the value system can we carry out the reforms that take us to the European Union," Tadic said in his address.
After the anniversary ceremony, the two presidents met the leaders of the umbrella organisation of Croats in Serbia-Montenegro -- the Croatian National Council. They were briefed about the national minority's problems in education, information and official language use.
The council's leader said the presence of the two presidents filled Croats in Serbia with hope that the problems will be overcome.
Visiting a house in Bajmok near Subotica where several families of Croatian Serb refugees live, Mesic and Tadic said they had seen in what difficult conditions refugees lived.
Mesic and Tadic said they would monitor the return of Serbs to Croatia and the exercising of the respective minorities' rights in Croatia and Serbia.
Mesic invited Tadic to visit Croatia and the Serb national minority, saying this would show "that the two countries can respect EU standards".
On Thursday, Mesic is scheduled to visit Kosovo and Montenegro.