Good political ties must develop into good trade and economic relations, was the major message of President Georgi Purvanov's first official visit to Croatia Thursday to Sunday.

The major conclusions of the talks he had with Croatian President Stiepe Mesic, Parliament Speaker Zlatko Tomcic and Prime Minister Ivica Racan were that the two countries are intensifying their bilateral relations.

During his visit, Purvanov proposed that the presidents of Bulgaria, Croatia and Yugoslavia come out with a joint memorandum to the European Union and the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, demanding faster implementation of infrastructure projects in the Balkans.

"Our peoples and institutions can, and should be, more aggressive in their requests to the EU," Purvanov said after his meeting with Mesic on the first day of the visit.

The two important projects he mentioned were transport Corridor 10 and the Zagreb-Belgrade-Sofia motorway.

At their meeting on Friday, Purvanov and Racan discussed the idea of a joint forum of Bulgarian and Croatian tour operators, which would consider opportunities for arranging package tours between the two countries.

Representatives of the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy have expressed readiness to invite tour operators of both countries for direct contacts.

Purvanov and Racan also discussed the participation of the Rade Koncar Company of Zagreb in the modernisation of the Bulgarian State Railways, the need of a direct air service between Bulgaria and Croatia as well as the possibility of increasing the export of Bulgarian wines and processed foods to Croatia.

On Friday, Purvanov opened the Bulgarian-Croatian business forum, which took place in Zagreb. Seventeen Bulgarian private and state-owned companies participated. Among them were the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Balkantourist, the ports of Varna and Bourgas and the Bulgarian State Railways.

In his address to the participants, Purvanov stressed that the conditions for the development of trade between the two countries were very good. He noted that one of the reasons for that was the political stability and the irreversible process of democratisation in both countries.