Borovec would not say how many police would provide security at the event but said there would be more than at the Gay Pride in Split last Saturday, which was guarded by nearly 700 police.

Borovec told the press there were no indications of a possible assembly of opponents to the parade, although some homophobic posters and graffiti had appeared in the streets. He said the Security and Intelligence Agency was helping collect information about a possible anti-gay rally.

Borovec said any suspicious person would be checked and anyone found to hold something that could endanger safety would be taken into custody.

He said that apart from the parade and the route of the march, police would provide security in nearby streets and the wider downtown area, because the previous nine gay pride marches in Zagreb had shown that attacks on participants took place after the parades.

Borovec criticised the organisers of the event for finding fault with the police every year, even when the Zagreb Pride parade passed without any incidents.

He said police were ready to suppress any organised violence.

Asked if the police had considered banning the parade in the past for security reasons, Borovec said they had not.

He said the creator of a homophobic website showing photos of participants in previous Zagreb Pride marches had not been found yet. He said the website constituted a crime of racial and other discrimination.

Zagreb Pride 2011, the 10th annual LGBTIQ march, will begin tomorrow at 2pm under the slogan "The future is ours, too!"

The organiser, the Zagreb Pride association, called on participants to fill Zagreb's streets with diversity and inclusiveness, as well as with a look into a future in which all LGBTIQ people will be free.

The organiser said their fight and opposition to any form of fascism, nationalism, racism, machismo, heterosexism and violence was not over.