The government also set up a delegation to conduct negotiations on the agreement, to be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor.
At the beginning of next year a law regulating the rights of war veterans and their families will go into force in Bosnia's Croat-Muslim entity. The law will considerably restrict the rights of the families of HVO soldiers who were killed, imprisoned or went missing during the war, as well as of disabled war veterans, Kosor said.
She went on to say that the agreement would make it possible to cover part of disability and family pension allowances which under the new law would not be paid by the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The agreement would provide for some 800 members of the families of HVO members who were killed, imprisoned or went missing during the war. In 2007 and 2008, the agreement would be extended to cover disabled HVO members whose disability will have to be revised in line with Croatian regulations.
The agreement will refer exclusively to Croatian citizens and to the period from 18 September 1991 to 23 December 1996.
With this initiative Croatia wants to give credit to all who participated in its defence as well as those who were involved in the Homeland War in other ways, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said.