(ZAGREB) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said Tuesday he was confident an ongoing row with the European Union over a fishing zone will soon be resolved.

"It is possible to find a solution which would satisfy all sides, that Croatia maintains the zone and that we remove the reasons that Italy and Slovenia are against it," Sanader said.

Croatia enforced the Adriatic Sea ecological zone on January 1 despite repeated EU warnings that doing so would have negative consequences on its ambitions to join the bloc.

Sanader said he was aware that Croatia's coastal neighbours Italy and Slovenia objected to the move, which is designed to protect fish stocks in the Adriatic.

"That it is why I have proposed and I expect a positive answer from Rome, Ljubljana and Brussels to start quadrilateral talks on how to (appease) Italy and Slovenia," he stressed.

Croatia first proclaimed the 23,800 square kilometre (9,520 square mile) zone in 2003. Its goal is to protect fishing stocks which Zagreb says are being depleted by Italy's larger fleet.

Italy's annual catch is some 200,000 tonnes compared with Croatia's 20,000 tonnes and Slovenia's 2,000, according to Zagreb.

As it sought EU candidacy in 2004, Croatia had agreed to allow exemptions for EU countries until a fishing accord was finalised with Brussels.

Italy and Slovenia have now proclaimed their own ecological zones.

The issue is closely linked to a sea-border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia, the current holder of the EU rotating presidency. The issue has dogged relations between the two former Yugoslav republics since they gained independence in 1991.

Croatia hopes to join the EU by the end of the decade.

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