Mesic's Office on October 12 delivered two photocopies of minutes from said meeting to the government office for cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal, which immediately returned them asking that they be declassified.
"I've been informed that the transcripts are back in my office and they will be declassified," Mesic said in Samobor, a town near Zagreb which today celebrates its day. He added he would not be able to declassify the documents before Monday because he was going on an official trip.
The President said the transcripts did not see the light of day earlier because only unclassified documents were made publicly available.
Speaking of media allegations that Andrija Hebrang was the likeliest candidate the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) would nominate for the forthcoming presidential race, Mesic said Hebrang would be a "fierce opponent". He added he expected the HDZ to nominate either Hebrang or Jadranka Kosor.
Mesic was also asked to comment on media speculation that the man seen on the Dalmatian coast last summer was not fugitive retired general Ante Gotovina, as claimed by the Hague war crimes tribunal's Office of the Prosecutor, but a lookalike Italian tourist. He said there had always been people who looked and sounded alike, adding he himself was often imitated.
Chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte recently said Gotovina was seen on a Croatian beach in August and expressed regret that he was not arrested.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zlatko Mehun confirmed today that competent bodies were checking reports that an Italian tourist resembling Gotovina was seen at Brela last summer.
Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt was quoted in a newspaper today as saying that a foreign national was identified in Brela who really resembled but was not Gotovina.