(LJUBLJANA) - The presidents of Croatia and Slovenia called on their respective governments Friday to resume dialogue to settle unresolved issues between the two former Yugoslav republics.

"We have to approach (bilateral relations) with responsability and a feeling of mutual respect," Slovenian President Danilo Turk, whose country holds the EU presidency, said.

Recent statements by officials from both sides were "not good and should not be part of our dialogue," he added after meeting with his Croatian counterpart Stipe Mesic at Otocec, some 100 kilometres (65 miles) east of Ljubljana.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said earlier this week that diplomatic relations between the two countries were "practically interrupted," prompting Mesic to reply Thursday that such an attitude could lead to a "catastrophe" in relations.

"We should avoid such a rhetoric... it would be better if they hadn't been pronounced at all," Turk said.

Mesic told journalists that the meeting, their first since Turk took office after November elections, was an opportunity to call on "our publics to walk towards the solution of open issues."

"Ultimately, we should not take opposite positions but try to use arguments in dealing with all open issues and search for the best possible solution," he added.

Croatia, which is currently in talks to join the EU, accuses its northern neighbour of using its six-month presidency of the bloc to press Zagreb over unresolved bilateral issues, but Slovenia has denied the charge.

Since declaring independence in 1991, the two former Yugoslav republics have been unable to resolve a number of issues, notably their common sea-border.

The matter is linked to a disputed Croatian fishing and ecological zone, enforced by Zagreb on January 1 to protect fishing stocks but strongly opposed by the European Union, especially Croatia's Adriatic Sea neighbours Italy and Slovenia.

Brussels has repeatedly warned Zagreb that imposing the zone may have negative consequences on its ambitions to join the bloc, which it hopes to do by the end of the decade.

The Croatian fishing zone issue "is not primarily a bilateral issue but it concerns the EU and should be solved in Brussels," Turk told journalists.

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