Italian media said today that Italian PM Romano Prodi had contacted his Croatian counterpart Ivo Sanader to say he was appalled by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic's statement yesterday that Italian President Giorgio Napolitano's speech on Saturday, on remembrance day for foibe victims, contained "elements of open racism, historical revisionism and political revenge-seeking".
Last Saturday, when Italy commemorated Italians thrown into foibe (karst pits) by the Partisans and those persecuted by the former Yugoslav regime during and after World War II, Napolitano said those people had been victims of "the barbarism of the century... the Slavic bloodthirsty hatred and rage and the Slavic annexationist claims".
Government spokesman Ratko Macek said Sanader's Office underlined that the Osimo and Rome Accords must be honoured and that Croatia was ready to pay its share of the debt to Italian refugees in line with succession to the former Yugoslavia.
"The offices of both prime ministers highlighted the common interest to develop good neighbourly relations without attempting to revise history," said Macek.