A significant increase in the number of applications for community service and problems with the training of reservists point to the need for a review of the existing compulsory military service system, Roncevic said.
The Government also adopted an annual report on the readiness of the defence system, the implementation of the staff policy and the overall situation in the Armed Forces, and sent it to parliament for consideration.
The report will also be sent to the Croatian President and Supreme Armed Forces Commander, Stjepan Mesic, for opinion.
Last year a total of 3.5 billion kuna from the state budget was allocated to the Defence Ministry.
At today's session the Government set up a task force to draw up a national strategy for the development of civil society. The strategy is to be submitted to the Office for Civil Associations by the end of April at the latest.
Also founded today was an organisation committee for the preparation of the programme for the marking of the Year of Nikola Tesla. The committee will have some 30 members, led by Croatian Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks.
2006 has been declared the year of Nikola Tesla.
Tesla, a famous inventor, electrical engineer, and scientist, was born in the village of Smiljan, central Croatia, in 1856. He died in New York on 7 January 1943.
His inventions include a telephone repeater, rotating magnetic field principle, polyphase alternating-current system, induction motor, alternating-current power transmission, Tesla coil transformer, wireless communication, radio, and fluorescent lights.