Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader slammed the European Commission's representative here after he warned against applying a protected fishing and ecological area off the Adriatic coast to EU members Italy and Slovenia.

"I will send him the Vienna Convention (regulating diplomatic relations) so that he can learn it by heart," Sanader was quoted by Hina news agency as saying with reference to Vincent Degert, head of the European Commission's mission to Croatia.

"Instead of protecting the interests of the European Union and helping Croatia as a future EU member, he is sowing confusion in the Croatian public," Sanader added.

Degert said in a statement that a possible unilateral move to start applying the ecological zone to EU members would be "detrimental to Croatia's credibility as a reliable partner in the region."

He stressed that Croatia in 2004 agreed at a meeting with Italy and Slovenia that its neighbours on the Adriatic would be exempt from implementation of the zone until conclusion of an accord on fishing with the EU.

But, Sanader said that "there is no trilateral agreement," adding that Croatia has an "absolute right" to enforce its ecological zone.

Since the meeting in 2004 both Italy and Slovenia have proclaimed their own ecological zones.

The Croatian foreign ministry said that after Croatia became an EU candidate country in 2005, the issue should be regulated "in the light of new conditions."

Croatian fishermen have been warning that the full application of the fishing and ecological zone is necessary to protect stock in the Adriatic, which they say is already being devastated by their Italian counterparts who have a far bigger fishing fleet.

The zone covering an area of some 57,000 square kilometres (22,800 square miles) was proclaimed by the Croatian parliament in 2004.