Speaking in an interview with the Jutarnji List daily of Monday, Cacic said that the initial idea was that the government should be represented on the INA Supervisory Board through experts, and later it was proposed that Finance Minister Slavko Linic be appointed as a member and he as chairman.

Cacic said that no decision had been made yet, adding that the proposal was not in violation of EU rules, but of the Croatian law on conflict of interest.

"That article of the law should be changed and that's all. Once the article has been amended we will decide which option to pursue," he said.

Responding to the remark by the interviewer that a law will again be changed because of one person, Cacic said that in this case it really had nothing to do with people.

"I don't want to go on the board. I don't have the time and no one would pay me for it anyway. I'm over my head in work, and it wasn't me who proposed it. It's up to the government to decide which way to go. To me any option is good," Cacic said.

Commenting on the proposal by the Hungarian oil group MOL, which owns slightly less than 50 per cent of INA, that INA should designate 300 experts from Naftaplin for a new joint company and should give up its operations in Slovenia and Serbia, Cacic said that any structural changes, regardless of their nature, other than day-to-day business, should be a part of an arrangement that would take into account the position of the Croatian government.

"We must sit and talk about it. The managing rights are not in accordance with the ownership share and that's why it will be discussed," Cacic said.

Speaking of growth projections, Cacic said it was essential to prevent gloomy projections of a 2 per cent contraction from materialising. "That's what we have to stop. We need time to launch hundreds of small projects. It's hard to get large projects going because none of them are ready in terms of documentation and licences, but once they get going it will all take its course," Cacic said.

He said that the number of unemployed people would not reach 400,000.

"What we are now working on, among other things, is public-private partnerships for three or four hospitals, several schools and a major judicial project, which is worth several billion kuna in all," Cacic said, adding that tenders would be issued in October.

Asked about his relationship with the vice-president of his HNS party and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Vesna Pusic, Cacic said that there were no problems in their relationship.

"She's doing the job she has always wanted to do and she has my full support and the support of the party. I have my job and I think I'm doing it well, which obviously is not a general opinion. In her case the general opinion is that she's doing her job well," Cacic said.