Croatia's role is important. We want to be an active member but we don't want to be leaders. We have no megalomaniacal pretensions, Milanovic said, adding that he wanted Croatia to be a regulated state.

We are here to help our neighbours because we have both business and human interests, he said at the summit's closing news conference, also wishing that "everything that haunted us for the last 20 years be behind us."

Commenting on former Serbian President Boris Tadic's unannounced arrival in Dubrovnik, Milanovic said he had personally invited him and that he was a former president and the president of a big Serbian party that was technically still in the government.

Tadic did not meet with Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci, although the media speculated the meeting would take place, but they shook hands at the end of the summit. Milanovic said this was a good thing that set good standards for the future.

One side always avoided the other. I hope that next year, if we organise the summit, we will be a good host to both, he added.

Although invited to the two-day event, Serbia did not send its representative. Because of the attendance of Kosovo's premier, no Serbian official attended the summit in the past either.

Tadic told reporters that the handshake with Thaci took place nearly by accident and that it should not be given too much attention. He said he supported Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic's statements in which he said that he was willing to hold talks on the settlement of the Kosovo issue.

Milanovic said he was satisfied with this year's Croatia Summit, saying that over the last seven years it had been a good opportunity for regional dialogue. Closing this year's edition, he said a whole new world would open to Croatia next year, referring to the admission to the European Union scheduled for July 1, 2013.

An annual international conference for Southeast Europe, Croatia Summit brings together the prime ministers and representatives of the countries in the region, the EU, the U.S. and organisations such as NATO.

Seven prime ministers attended this year - Milanovic and his counterparts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Kosovo and Poland. There were also NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon.

The foreign ministers of the countries caught in the Arab Spring attended for the first time.

Milanovic said he was very pleased that this had been an opportunity to exchange opinions on events that, the summit heard, surprised the whole world in early 2011. He said everything that was happening in north Africa had direct impact on the Mediterranean, including Croatia.