"Modern concentration processes, primarily in the oil industry, followed by the gas and electric power industries, justify plans to consider conditions and deadlines for the establishment of a regional energy hub in Croatia. I advocate such a strategy," Mesic said.
"Croatia does not have enough energy sources and we must do all we can to obtain power products. We can do so only if we establish regional cooperation," the Croatian president said.
He announced an energy summit of Southeast European heads of state, to take place in Zagreb on 23-24 June, at which positions on the financing of energy sources would be discussed.
Diverse and secure long-term energy supply is the main goal of the EU's energy strategy in securing sufficient quantities of all kinds of energy, but the power market must be deregulated and power companies must be privatised in such a way to allow all countries to keep sovereignty over that crucial part of national economies, Mesic added.
Mesic recalled that earlier this month Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy signed a declaration on a pan-European oil pipeline for the transport of Caspian oil from the Romanian port of Constanta to Trieste.
"This month we will start official talks with Slovenia and Italy on a modified version of the DruzbaAdria project which we consider to be complementary to the Pan-European Oil Pipeline (PEOP) project," Mesic said.
During his stay in Ohrid, Mesic held separate meetings with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski.
"Cooperation with all countries in the region is more or less good, and the region is only burdened by the pace of defining Kosovo's status," Mesic said.
The Ohrid summit was also attended by the presidents of Albania and Montenegro, the vice-president of Bulgaria, and the chairman of Bosnia's collective presidency.