"The meeting with the secretary-general was yet another confirmation that even relatively small countries like Croatia can have a good reputation in the World Organisation and can make a significant contribution," Josipovic told Croatian reporters.

As confirmation of Croatia's reputation on the East River, he mentioned the recent appointment of Ivan Simonovic as Ban's assistant for human rights.

"Fortunately, we now have our former Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic holding a very high office in the UN, which is yet another sign that there are capable and willing people in Croatia," he said, hopeful that more Croatian officials would be engaged in international organisations.

Ban "said he was pleased that Simonovic is in charge of human rights in the UN and spoke of this very sympathetically," Josipovic said, adding he was certain that "Simonovic will be an excellent human rights advocate".

Asked if the fact that a Croat was the UN secretary-general's human rights assistant raised human rights protection criteria in Croatia, Josipovic said "we still have problems, although big progress has been made. We read about it also in international organisations' reports".

He said most important was the "positive trend", voicing confidence that all institutions, the government and the judiciary would do their utmost so that human rights were protected.