Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor reiterated that her government's goal was to bring the European Union membership talks to completion by the end of June.

"This goal is attainable and we can make it," Kosor said, adding that talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, who are coming to Zagreb on Thursday, would be good and beneficial.

The European Commission adopted the interim report on Croatia on 2 March.

We are working on meeting all the benchmarks for closing Chapter 23 as planned, Kosor said.

She highlighted efforts to combat corruption and organised crime, particularly high-profile corruption cases.

Last year, reports were made against 1,101 people suspected of involvement in corruption-related activities, she said.

The premier also expressed satisfaction with the reduction of the backlog of court cases, adding that 16.8 percent or 14,222 civil cases at municipal courts had been solved by 25 March out of 84,802 cases.

Kosor reiterated that Croatia had adopted a series of laws to strengthen the administrative capacity of state institutions and agencies, and laws pertaining to the said policy chapter such as the conflict of interest legislation and the Police Act.

The enactment of those laws is very important and those laws must be enforced in the period from the completion of the negotiations to the signing of the treaty of accession, she said

She also recalled the adoption of legislation on the financing of political parties, election campaigns, the strengthening of the central election commission and the Office of the Public Ombudsman.

She announced another report on Croatia's performance for the end of this month.

Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic said that the results were better than expected, particularly in cutting the number of pending cases at courts.

He said that an action plan for the protection of ethnic minorities' rights would be elaborated soon.