"Today, when Serbian President Boris Tadic and Croatian President Ivo Josipovic meet in Vukovar, we have gathered here to express our support for the future of this region," Mario Magic, of Zagreb, said before throwing a rose into the river.

"Our aim is to show everyone that young people want to build their future together, because it's sad to see that young people in Vukovar are still divided along ethnic lines," Magic said, adding that their meeting was organised on the initiative of human rights organisations from Zagreb and Belgrade and through personal contacts on the online social network Facebook.

Vukovar secondary school student Maja Milanovic said she was throwing a white rose into the Vuka river for all the war victims from Vukovar and for a brighter future for her generation.

Dusan Lopusina, of Belgrade, said that today's meeting between the presidents of Serbia and Croatia was very important, but that "it is also important that young people in Serbia should be told the truth about what happened here in Vukovar, because they cannot learn that from books."

Before and after throwing roses from the bridge over the river, the young people strolled through the town, talking and planning new meetings. On the bridge they were greeted by Vesna Pusic, the head of the national committee overseeing Croatia's EU membership negotiations, who said that "unfortunately, it is always so that those who are not to blame apologise for others' wrongdoing."

Pusic said that the meeting between the two presidents was important, but added that the gathering of young people in Vukovar was "especially important and nice."