"I think it is an expression of confidence in the Croatian judiciary, because after all the criticism we have received (...) it is obvious that the Croatian judiciary has matured," Mesic told Croatian reporters on Wednesday in New York where he was attending a UN summit.
Commenting on the decision by the Hague tribunal to refer its first war crimes case to Croatia, Mesic said that the Croatian judiciary was capable of handling such difficult cases and expressed hope that it would prove itself on such cases.
"I expect that the judiciary will take that big step to administer justice on the basis of law and that it will not be selective in administering law," he added.
The Croatian president also commented on the latest World Bank report on prospects for doing business in 2006, which ranked Croatia 118th on a list of 155 countries.
"I am surprised, because it was international financial institutions that exerted pressure on Croatia to privatise its banks as soon as possible," Mesic said, adding that Croatia had not only privatised banks but had also given them into foreign hands "and is now being criticised".
"When Croatia wants to open an agrarian bank, they exert pressure saying that it would not be good if it were to be owned by the government, towns or municipalities," he said.
Mesic said that 90 per cent of the Croatian banking sector was in foreign hands and that he could not understand why the ownership of the small remaining portion of banks was a problem.