Croatia's top political and sporting officials are confident of winning the right to co-host the 2012 European Championship with neighbouring Hungary.

``I'm convinced that we will host Euro 2012,'' Croatian federation head Vlatko Markovic said Tuesday. ``UEFA has no moral reason to deny us.''

Croatia has failed in two bids to host the European Championship, while Hungary has missed out three times.

Markovic said a team of six scouts from UEFA _ European soccer's governing body _ were ``impressed'' during a three-day tour to inspect local stadiums, hotels and other infrastructure.

Later Tuesday, the team visited the southern city of Split and will tour two other potential host cities before heading to Hungary later this week.

UEFA scout Giorgio Marchetti said the presentation in Split was ``convincing and successful,'' the state-run news agency HINA reported.

Markovic said that UEFA delegates ``were surprised by the complete synchronization at both political and sporting levels between the two countries.''

Croatia and Hungary are competing with Italy and a Poland-Ukraine joint bid.

But while Italian soccer has been rocked by a corruption scandal, Croatia has been tainted by a series of crowd disturbances. Last month, about 200 Croatian fans formed a human swastika during an exhibition game against Italy.

FIFA was investigating the incident.

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader returned early from a visit to the United States and U.N. headquarters to meet with the UEFA visitors.

``Even though I just came back from New York, I did not want to miss a chance to meet with the inspectors,'' Sanader said. ``I don't think we should overlook anything that could lead us to success.''

© The Canadian Press, 2007