Croatia on Friday signed agreements with the country's Orthodox church and Islamic community, granting their members similar rights to those enjoyed by members of the predominant Roman Catholic church.
The Orthodox church, which mainly gathers the country's ethnic Serbs, will receive 7.5 million kuna (about US$ 1 million) in state funding each year under the agreement. The Islamic community will get 2.1 million kuna (US$ 300,000).
The amounts are proportional to the size of each group. The Roman Catholic church receives 160 million kuna (US$22 million) from the state each year.
Prime Minister Ivica Racan said the long-awaited accords confirmed Croatia as a "democratic, but also multicultural and multireligious country."
More than 80 percent of Croats consider themselves Roman Catholics and although other religions are free, their believers have often complained they feel neglected.
The head of the Islamic community, Sefko Omerbasic, said Croatian Muslims "hope the agreements will give them a right to enjoy their faith, without a fear of being persecuted like in some other countries."
The government plans to sign similar agreements with other religious communities in Croatia soon, Racan said.