Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt and her assistant in charge of cooperation with the Hague tribunal, Jaksa Muljacic, met lawyers for General Ivan Cermak, General Mladen Markac and General Ante Gotovina in Zagreb on Thursday.
"All promises of cooperation in accordance with the Hague tribunal's rules of evidence and procedure were reiterated," Muljacic told reporters after the meeting.
The lawyers said they were pleased with the content of the meeting.
"All the answers we were given were positive," said Ivo Farcic, one of the lawyers representing Ante Gotovina.
"We received guarantees that the cooperation would be intensified," said Miroslav Separovic, a member of the Markac defence team.
Hague tribunal prosecutors announced on Wednesday they would ask for the joinder of proceedings against Gotovina with those against Markac and Cermak, arguing that the cases were based on the same facts.
Separovic said it was too early to speculate whether the indictments against the three generals would be joined, adding that the Markac defence team was in principle opposed to the idea.
"If there is a joinder, we will not be surprised and we are ready for it. We will cooperate with the defence teams of General Gotovina and General Markac, because our interests are not in collision. We will also cooperate with the government with the shared goal of disproving the idea of a joint criminal enterprise," Separovic said.
Muljacic said that the Council for Cooperation with the Hague tribunal, consisting of law experts, would continue challenging unacceptable and inaccurate parts of the indictment charging the Croatian state and armed forces, such as a joint criminal enterprise that was allegedly undertaken by Croatia to cleanse parts of its territory of ethnic Serbs.
All three generals are charged with violations of international humanitarian law, including crimes against Serb civilians and their property committed in the general area of Knin during and in the aftermath of the Croatian military operation "Storm" from 4 August to 15 November 1995.
Gotovina's lawyers Luka Misetic and Marin Ivanovic arrived from The Hague on Thursday and did not attend the meeting.