Speaking in a Croatian Radio programme, Sanader said that the Croatian Foreign Ministry had submitted a proposal for arbitration to the Slovene Foreign Ministry, and that the proposal did not specify the subject of arbitration and a judicial body that would arbitrate the dispute. He added that the proposal could be amended.
The prime minister said he was certain that a critical mass in favour of international arbitration was being developed in Slovenia after 16 years of agreements that had failed to produce results.
Asked why the European People's Party, of which his Croatian Democratic Union is a member, voted against the amendment proposed by Croatia rapporteur Hannes Swoboda, which provided for arbitration over the Slovene-Croatian border dispute, Sanader said that the two countries would decide by themselves on whether they would go to arbitration or not.
Sanader said that Swoboda's amendment was "a double-edged sword" because it also provided for the ratification of the Racan-Drnovsek agreement.
Commenting on speculation that Croatia might activate the Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone in the Adriatic before parliamentary elections this autumn, Sanader recalled that the Croatian Parliament had postponed the enforcement of the zone by no later than January 1, 2008.
Sanader said that the Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone would be activated as soon as the necessary conditions were created, adding that it was too early to speculate about it at the moment.
He described his visit to Sarajevo last week as very successful, recalling that two bilateral agreements were signed on that occasion - an agreement on dual citizenship and an agreement on the joint supervision of the border.
Commenting on interpretations that Bosnia-Herzegovina had a stake in Adriatic oil pipeline operator JANAF, Sanader said that the constitutional court of the former Yugoslav federation had settled the issue in the 1980s, and that Croatia had fully assumed the obligation to repay the loan. He said he believed the story was launched because of the forthcoming privatisation of the Bosanski Brod oil refinery.