The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) will not form a coalition either with the Croatian Civic Party (HGS) of Zeljko Kerum in Split or with the Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB) in Osijek, HDZ secretary-general Branko Bacic and the head of the HDZ branch in the eastern Osijek-Baranja County, Tomislav Ivic, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Speaking of yesterday's visit by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor to Split, Bacic said that Kosor held several meetings there, including one with the management of the Brodosplit shipyard. Present at the meeting was also Split Mayor Zeljko Kerum, with whom the PM discussed two important investments which the central government and the Split city authorities have been negotiating for some time, said Bacic.

One of the investments refers to the construction of a pier for cruise ships and the other to the extension of the Lora port complex. "There was no talk of anything else, especially not of a coalition between Kerum's party and the HDZ," said Bacic.

He went on to say that media speculation about the HDZ forming a coalition with the HGS was aimed at downplaying an exceptionally successful meeting Kosor and her advisor, General Damir Krsticevic, had with war veterans who, Bacic said, extended their full support to Kosor.

The head of the HDZ branch in the eastern Osijek-Baranja County, Tomislav Ivic, dismissed as false claims in yesterday's central news broadcast on Croatian Television about a possible coalition between the HDZ and the HDSSB in Osijek, saying that the HDZ had not cooperated nor would cooperate with the HDSSB.

Ivic said the purpose of those reports was to cover up the fact that there was a firm coalition between the HDSSB, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Croatian People's Party (HNS) in Osijek-Baranja County.

He recalled that the HDSSB and the SDP ran together in the last local elections in the county, and that a coalition of those two parties was in power in a number of towns and municipalities in the county.