Plestina said it was important that the conference was taking place in Southeast Europe because some of its countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia, all signatories to the convention, were dealing with the issue of landmines.
So far the Ottawa Convention had been signed by 146 countries.
Plestina said about 1,150 square metres of land in Croatia were suspected of hiding mines, mostly in eastern Slavonia and in the Zadar hinterland.
She recalled that 410 people in Croatia had been killed by mines so far, while some 1,460 had been wounded.
Croatia has fulfilled a very important provision from the Ottawa convention -- the destruction of 10,000 stored mines.
The convention was signed in 1997 after negotiations in Oslo with the purpose of adopting a ban on landmines, demining, and helping mine victims.
The Zagreb meeting is expected to pool some 600 delegates.