"According to information in my possession, I am not considering (such a move), but we will certainly follow developments, check all new information and decide accordingly," Sanader said when asked whether he was considering replacing Minister Zuzul over the possibility of his being in conflict of interest.
Sanader was in Meise near Brussels attending a summit of the European People's Party.
"It is in my interest as Prime Minister and (Croatian Democratic Union) party president, and I believe in the interest of every citizen to learn the full truth about that case. Everybody should be given the opportunity, primarily Minister Zuzul, to state the whole truth," the PM said.
"Until yesterday and question time in parliament, when I said very clearly 'no' to requests by MP Anton Kapraljevic, the state of affairs was as it was, but if developments take another turn, we will certainly consider consequences... I insist that every Croatian official and anybody who wants to be involved in politics absolutely respect our party code, which we adopted before the elections, and everything that is considered good democratic standards," Sanader said.
Over the past two days, the Croatian media and opposition politicians have uncovered information saying that Zuzul was in conflict of interest in the Imotstroj case.
Last Tuesday, the media reported that the minister's wife Tatjana Zuzul and the owner of the Karin Univerzal Inzenjering company, Ivan Karin, signed a contract in January this year on the sale of shares in her MTS company. Under the contract, Karin was to pay Zuzul's wife 500,000 kuna (approx. EUR66,700) for a 50-percent share in the MTS. In June Karin bought at a price of 6.3 million kuna the bankrupt Imotstroj company, whose debt of 6.24 million kuna was written off by the government in September.
Zuzul on Wednesday dismissed claims that he was in conflict of interest at the time when the government made the decision to write off Imotstroj's debt. He said that the contract was terminated because it had not been implemented and that no payments were ever made.
However, the media on Thursday revealed documents showing that there had been five transactions between the two companies, totalling 143,000 kuna, which prompted opposition MPs to demand Zuzul's resignation.