"The Croatian government dismisses this way of conduct between two friendly and neighbouring countries. If there are outstanding border issues, and there are outstanding issues between Croatia and Slovenia, they must be solved bilaterally and if everything fails the two countries should approach international arbitration," Sanader told reporters in New York where he is taking part in the annual session of the UN General Assembly.
Sanader said Croatia had no understanding for Slovenia's provocations which were frequent in the election campaign because some politicians were trying to score pre-election points.
"Croatia will not allow the violation of borders and international law, and will treat everyone who does so equally, regardless of who that be," Sanader said in reaction to an incident provoked by Slovenians on the Croatian-Slovene border on Wednesday.
"In that light, I am calling on Slovenia to refrain from provocations because nobody needs an escalation," the Croatian PM said.
Sanader said he spoke to top Slovene officials on Wednesday, declining to reveal their names, and added that he was told the incident was provoked so as to collect political points in the election campaign.
"We are against the escalation of incidents in our relations because I still believe that Croatia and Slovenia are two friendly countries, two countries that have a shared history, were closest in the former Yugoslav federation and which will share a European future," Sanader said and advocated the calming of the situation.
Asked what Croatian diplomats were doing to prevent Slovenia's diplomatic offensive about this case, during which Slovene PM Anton Rop said Slovenia would no longer support Croatia's admission into the EU, Sanader said: "I am not the least bit concerned about the Slovene PM's statements. It is certain that Croatia has its path towards the EU. This path is the path of recognising and sharing the best European values".
Sanader said that in accordance with those values Croatia advocated arbitration for outstanding issues with Slovenia.
He said the Croatian government would inform all diplomatic circles about Croatia's standpoint.
Sanader confirmed that Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul held talks in New York with his Slovene counterpart Ivo Vajgl and EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and other European ministers, and that he informed them of Croatia's standpoint about the incident.
The Croatian PM said he was certain "Slovenia and all other EU member countries will support Croatia on the path to the European Union".
Asked about today's police raids of the houses, cars and officers of three people suspected of helping fugitive ICTY indictee Ante Gotovina, Sanader said police were doing their job.
"I personally support all Croatian police activities when it comes to investigating every possible aspect of legal or illegal activities," Sanader said.
He added that Thursday's police operation was not related to any special moment, adding that this was just a regular police operation.