Bulgaria has promised Croatia assistance on its way to the European Union, Bulgarian Parliament President Ognyan Gerdzikov told reporters after the meeting.
Sabor head Vladimir Seks said the talks focused on making cooperation between the parliaments' committees on European integration and foreign policy more operational, so that Croatia could benefit from the knowledge and experience Bulgaria had gained in the process of integration into the EU.
He thanked Gerdzikov for Bulgaria's support to Croatia before the NATO summit in Istanbul, which he said helped open NATO's door to Croatia a little more.
In April this year Bulgaria and seven other former communist countries were admitted to NATO. Bulgaria is expected to join the EU in 2007 with neighbouring Romania. This year, Bulgaria completed negotiations on all 29 chapters of the acquis communautaire.
Seks said that the countries' good political relations intensified their economic cooperation.
Last year's bilateral trade totalled 73 million dollars, which is almost three times more than in 2002. The two delegations agreed, though, that there was room for cooperation in tourism, the railway equipment industry and the construction of power plants.
The Croatian parliamentary delegation was also received by Bulgarian President Georgy Prvanov, who reiterated his country's support to Croatia's membership in the EU, as well as by Deputy Prime Minister Plamen Panayotov. The delegation laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
During the afternoon, the Sabor delegation will meet Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.