"Croatia will soon join us in the European Union and NATO. It would be wise if Slovenia and Croatia assisted each other before and after that. But we must not be naive. Slovenia has no new demands, but we intend to keep what belongs to us," Jansa told the Slovene Parliament.
Jansa said Slovenia would insist on its previous demands with regard to outstanding issues with Croatia, which he said had been inherited from the former Yugoslavia.
The Slovene Parliament started an extraordinary session at noon to vote on a proposal by President Janez Drnovsek that Jansa be elected new Prime Minister after his Democratic Party (SDS) had won a relative majority at parliamentary elections on October 3.
Jansa said that the existing problems between Slovenia and Croatia could not be resolved by confrontation, but "by cooperation and strategic partnership".
The Slovene prime minister-designate proposed that a special commission consisting of historians and other experts be set up to study relations between the Slovenes and the Croats in the 20th century, saying that "it could help in the search for the best solutions to the outstanding issues between the two countries". He said that similar commissions had been set up to deal with Slovenia's relations with Italy and Austria.