Sanader was speaking to reporters at a convention of small and medium-sized enterprises. He was asked to comment on a statement by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Adnan Terzic, who said that by encouraging construction of the Peljesac bridge Sanader was actually trying to block an agreement between the two countries on the status of Ploce port.
Terzic's statement was carried by Sarajevo newspaper Oslobodjenje on Wednesday.
By building the bridge, we want to ensure the exercise of two rights: Croatia's right to have its territories connected and Bosnia-Herzegovina's right to ships entering its territorial waters, the Croatian prime minister said, adding that Croatia wanted to resolve the status of Ploce port.
He recalled that the agreement on the port of Ploce had been concluded at a time when Croatia and the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina had special relations and that the agreement had been annulled by both parties.
Sanader said that the agreement on the port of Ploce was not fair, announcing that he would propose a new one. He said that the fact that 80 per cent of turnover in the port was generated by Bosnian companies could not be ignored, but that Ploce was a Croatian port and would remain so.
The prime minister also commented on Tuesday's statement by the Italian Foreign Ministry, in which the ministry expressed concern over the decision by the Croatian government to conclude a bilateral agreement with Austria on compensation for property that had been confiscated in Croatia after the Second World War and then denationalised.
Sanader described the statement as out of place, saying that the Rome and Osimo accords, which Croatia inherited from Yugoslavia, were beyond question.