"Taking into account Croatian citizens' concerns about the Druzhba-Adria ... I suggest a regional conference which should ensure efficient mechanisms of ecological protection for the Adriatic," Mesic said, adding it should take place next year.

Local environmental groups are stepping up efforts to block the pipeline project connecting Russian oilfields with the Adriatic, which they say will seriously threaten the crystal-clear Croatian waters.

Mesic has been a fervent supporter of the Druzhba-Adria integrated pipeline project involving Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia.

The project was initially planned to start in late 2003 but was delayed by the environmental concerns, to the point of having no firm further schedule at the moment.

Its fate depends on a study of its potential ecological impact, which is due to be assessed by an independent team of local experts in the coming months.

Mesic faces a presidential ballot on Jan. 2, with local surveys suggesting he was likely to be re-elected. "Protection of the Adriatic is our obligation, not only towards the European Union, which we hope to join, but towards the generations to come. It is too serious an issue for an off-hand approach," Mesic said.

Croatian ecology groups are pressing for a local referendum on the pipeline. In a recent poll, 73 percent of Croatians said they were in favour of a referendum.

The ecologists argue that, as the Adriatic is a small and almost closed sea, dangers of pollution from too high a number of tankers using the deep-sea port of Omisalj in the northern Adriatic, were far greater than financial benefits. Local proponents of the pipeline say that if Croatia rejected the project, the northern Italian port of Trieste could be used instead of Omisalj for export of Russian oil.