Prime Ministers of Croatia

Ivica Dacic says Croatia "has not learned lessons from the problems so far" while the Croatian prime minister "continues to provoke Serbia with his statements."

The Serbian foreign minister and first deputy prime minister added that "the words of Zoran Milanovic do not contribute to solving the problems."

Niksic, the SDP's former secretary general and leader for the past year, was re-elected as party president for the next four years in polls on Sunday.

"This is a great victory, not only for the SDP but for Bosnia and Herzegovina as well," Niksic told a press conference on Sunday night.

The leader of a months-long sit-in protest by Croatian war veterans said it would continue during the upcoming parliamentary election campaign to put pressure on candidates to support them.

Croatia's centre-left government on Thursday offered official support to Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic in her bid to become the new UN Secretary General.

Her candidacy was unofficially raised in February and her chances appeared high, as it is thought that the next UN Secretary will come from Eastern or Southeastern Europe.

Zagreb County Court on Wednesday indefinitely extended custody of former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

His lawyers had filed a plea for him to be released from custody lasting almost four years.

Sanader has received a nine-year jail sentence in a first instance ruling for using private marketing companies to siphon off public funds from state institutions and bodies.

Zagreb county court has scheduled the start of Sanader's retrial for September 7 on charges of abuse of office, war profiteering and bribery.

Sanader's eight-and-a-half-year sentence was revoked by the constitutional court on Monday due to procedural errors.

The constitutional court's decision this week to revoke the conviction of Sanader for bribery and illegal profiteering and order a retrial will not damage the electoral chances of his party, the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, at polls due late this year or in early 2016, analysts told BIRN.

Croatia's constitutional court on Monday revoked the verdicts that sentenced former ex-premier Sanader to eight and a half years in prison for abuse of office, war profiteering and bribery.

The verdicts were overturned because of procedural errors, the court said, and the legal process against Sanader will now restart at Zagreb county court.

Leader of Croatia's HDZ party says his country's allies gave up on participating in the Operation Storm parade on August 4 "due to pressure from Serbia."

President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic's office on Monday clearly distanced itself from Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic's bid to become UN secretary general.

The President's office told BIRN that Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic had other priorities, saying that "there are major issues in Croatia, such as the economy and negative demographic trends, which must constantly be stressed.