Commenting on claims in a Croatian daily about Loncar's role in 1991 and his alleged advocacy of imposing an arms embargo on Croatia and refusal of Mesic's proposal that he join the Croatian side, Mesic said that he had suggested that Loncar return to Croatia immediately, and that Loncar answered that he would return as soon as he was done with some obligations.
"He then resigned (from the post of Yugoslav Foreign Minister) and did his best for Croatia," Mesic said, asking reporters if Loncar should have brandished a machine-gun and worn a camouflage uniform in Belgrade and say that he would fight for Croatia.
"He fought for Croatia in a different way," Mesic told reporters before the start of a conference on the contribution of civil society organisations in strengthening democracy in Croatia.
Answering a reporter's question, Mesic said that he had previously agreed with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks that he (Mesic), Seks and Deputy PM Jadranka Kosor would attend this year's Statehood Day ceremony in Vukovar, held on June 25. Sanader's nonattendance of 25 June commemorations in Vukovar became topical due to his controversial trip to Verona at that time.
Commenting on European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso's statement that the process of EU enlargement should be stopped after the admission of Bulgaria and Romania, until the EU reformed its institutions, Mesic said that this was an opinion of a senior official, but that it did not have to be the position of the European Union.
"We have started negotiations and we will complete them," Mesic said.
He went on to say that he had no information regarding claims by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who said in his memoirs that Al-Qa'ida in 2002 had planned an attack on the London airport Heathrow using planes from Croatia and four other Southeast European countries because of insufficient security at those airports.
"I have no information about that, but terrorists are obviously not sleeping, so we have no reason to doubt or confirm such claims. We do not know what they planned," he said, adding that security measures at Croatian airports and in Croatian planes were not being neglected. "We have small airports where the possibility of control is greater, and so is security," Mesic concluded.