Pusic was one of the keynote speakers at the conference which aimed to raise funds for the permanent resolution of the status of refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia.
Pusic said that the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia left nearly 3 million people as refugees, stressing that it was important that the countries in the region had decided to resolve this painful issue by themselves. "This is the crown of the four countries' joint efforts," she said.
Pusic said that Croatia was fully committed to ensuring full completion of the programme of care for the refugees either through their return to their prewar homes or through their integration, noting that any temporary solution was the worst possible option.
Since the end of the war in 1995, Croatia has rebuilt 150,000 housing units, thus confirming its readiness to settle the refugee issue, Pusic said.
The conference was being attended by high-level delegations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia as well as representatives of 25 countries. The Croatian delegation was led by Deputy Prime Minister Branko Grcic.
Among those attending were US Assistant Secretary of State David Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier, and the Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank, Rolf Wenzel. European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele was also due to attend.
Bosnian Prime Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda said in his opening remarks that the conference aimed to raise over 500 million euros for housing for 27,000 refugee families.
The entire programme costs over 583 million euros, and the countries of the region have undertaken to provide 83 million euros for its implementation, which would last five years.
"We all hope to raise this amount to ensure a lasting and sustainable solution for the refugees in the region," Bevanda said.
Under the criteria defined by the UNHCR, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia are to receive 100 million euros each, Montenegro is to get 27 million euros and Serbia as much as 308 million.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said that according to the UNHCR standards Serbia was ranked among the five countries in the world with the largest number of refugees because it had over 600,000 registered refugees.
The conclusions of the conference were expected later in the afternoon.