EU membership talks will start by the end of this year at the latest, Vujcic told the agency in an interview in Belgrade on Monday on the margins of the 14th annual assembly of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The talks were delayed on March 16 this year after Croatia failed to hand over fugitive general Ante Gotovina to the Hague war crimes tribunal.
The aim of the Croatian government is to complete the negotiations by 2007, Vujcic said. Then it is up to the European Union to set an accession date.
Croatia is keen on joining the bloc already in 2008, a year after Bulgaria and Romania. The Croatian government expects that the admission will boost trade, maintain economic growth and reduce the current unemployment rate of 19.3 per cent, the agency said.
Vujcic said that economic growth was likely to slow down to 3.6 per cent this year from 3.8 per cent in 2004 as investment growth subsided and spending decreased, and that direct foreign investment could reach 4.5 to 5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.