Asked by the press to comment on SDP president Zoran Milanovic's statement today that Kosor's HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) was leading a "dirty" campaign and his party a fair one, Kosor said: "He should talk." She added that during the two years that she had been running the government and the HDZ, the SDP's "dirty campaign hasn't stopped" and that the SDP was the last party that could talk about a dirty campaign.

"The insults and humiliation haven's stopped," Kosor told the press during her visit to the Knin area, adding that the SDP's leading officials, including Milanovic, "are defaming and humiliating the HDZ.

She said that last weekend, when the HDZ was holding a convention, "Milanovic's closest associate (Zeljko) Jovanovic attacked 10,000 delegates, telling them to go to Remetinec," the prison in Zagreb.

Kosor blamed the SDP for obstructing "every millimetre" of Croatia's accession negotiations with the European Union.

She said SDP official Ranko Ostojic "is threatening he will put us all behind bars" and that "no is supposed to talk about any irregularity, God forbid a crime committed by the SDP, because the party is untouchable."

Kosor said the president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee on Human Rights, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, "dared ... to point to irregularities in that party and was immediately subjected to unprecedented attacks and insults."

"Their method of governance in the past decades has surfaced again: insult, humiliate, threaten with imprisonment, threaten with prosecution. But we live in a democratic Croatia," said Kosor.

Asked to comment on a statement by the Hungarian ambassador to Croatia that the announced amendment of the law on Croatia's oil company INA, which is co-owned by Hungary's MOL, would not pass in Brussels, she reiterated that the government had decided to move amendments to said law so that no one but Croatia could own more than 49 per cent of INA shares.

"That's an important decision on the protection of strategic national interests, because I am sure that everyone will support the protection of national interests," Kosor said, recalling that the State Prosecutor's Office had filed an indictment "regarding bribery" in the INA-MOL case, a reference to the indictment against former Croatian PM Ivo Sanader.

"We respect the principle and constitutional provisions that everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but if there is suspicion that a deal was made on the basis of corruption, namely bribery, then the state must protect national interests. I believe the Republic of Hungary and its Prime Minister Orban understand what protection of national interests means and I am sure that all other EU countries will understand as well."

Commenting on claims that the amendments restrict stock ownership, Kosor said Croatia respected the EU's legal standards but that this was a particular case.

"The State Prosecutor's Office has pressed charges regarding the INA-MOL deal and, according to (its) opinion, it involved bribery. That's why this case is particular," Kosor said, adding that she could not recall similar cases in the EU.

She also said the State Prosecutor's Office and the government must react equally in the protection of national interests.