The two presidents met on the fringes of a summit of heads of state of Southeast European countries.

They stressed that Croatia-Serbia relations were too important to be disrupted by various statements, and recalled that they had invested a lot of effort in raising bilateral relations to the highest level and that this must be pursued.

Josipovic and Tadic announced they would encourage their governments to accelerate the solving of outstanding issues, notably missing persons from the 1991-1995 war, refugees, borders, succession to the former Yugoslavia and the full exercise of minority rights. They underlined the need to hold an international donor conference for refugees and to solve their property issues.

The two presidents said that shedding light on the fate of missing persons was a top humanitarian issue.

Before meeting with Tadic, Josipovic said occasional verbal conflicts between Croatian and Serbian officials could not affect relations between the two countries, which he said were constantly improving.

In a statement to Serbian news agency Tanjug, Josipovic said that, looking back, Croatian-Serbian relations had been "absolutely improving" and that since the war many things had changed and cooperation had begun in many important issues.

"Verbal conflicts express certain points of view at a certain time, but people are also here to fight and make up," said Josipovic.

He said the two countries still had outstanding issues such as the missing, crimes and refugee returns but that, over time, a better climate had been created.

"Of course, during that time, notably in time of transition (and) elections, as will happen between states and within states, there are some oscillations. Perhaps now we have been in a period of oscillation, but I don't consider it important," Josipovic said.