The wife of the Croatian President, Franjo Tudjman, has replied to media accusations that she has huge undeclared assets in her private bank account.

Ankica Tudjman said the sum of more than one-hundred-and-forty-thousand dollars that she deposited in March was from royalties earned by her husband on his writings.

Two former bank employees could be prosecuted for disclosing the transaction to the Croatian press, which they said they did as a protest at official corruption.

Mr Tudjman declared his family's assets to parliament in September but did not include the money.

Mrs Tudjman is a pensioner, who runs a children's charity on a voluntary basis.