Erjavec will address one of the panel events staged at the conference today and hold several bilateral meetings, including with Ukrainian FM Kostyantyn Hryshchenko.

The meeting with Pusić is scheduled for Saturday. The talks are expected to focus on the LB bank issue that could pose a hurdle for Croatia on its path to full EU membership.

Erjavec has recently warned that Croatia's failure to respect its commitments regarding savings deposits in the Zagreb branch of the defunct Slovenian LB bank could lead to grave consequences for Croatia given that its EU accession treaty must also be ratified by Slovenia, which will require a two-thirds majority in the Slovenian parliament.

Pusić has maintained that the LB dispute must not affect Croatia's EU accession, saying it is unthinkable that something "totally unrelated to Croatia's EU accession could become a hurdle on Croatia's way towards the EU".

Apart from the LB, the foreign ministers might also address the issue of storage of nuclear waste from the jointly owned Krško nuclear power plant and the planned joint session of the two governments which is expected to take place in the autumn.