BELGRADE, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said on Sunday that his country would buy five planes to boost firefighting efforts as the Balkan country has been battling hundreds of wildfires during the past month.

After meeting with fire departments heads at Divulje in southern Croatia, Sanader said that he would propose purchasing another two Canadair water-carrying aircraft and three air tractor planes at the government's session on Thursday, the Croatian news agency HINA reported.

Sanader said there was no need for declaring a state of emergency after recent blazes in southern Croatia.

Tourists were not disturbed, which proves that Croatia is a safe destination, and Croatia was also able to help other countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia to fight wildfires, Sanader said.

According to Croatian fire department chief Mladen Jurin, there have been 850 outbreaks of fires so far this month and that there are currently 20 of them still burning in the Adriatic region.

Croatian media said that 18 people have died in fires this year and 36 have been injured while material damage amounts to 126.5 million kuna (23.7 million U.S. dollars).

Sanader said that this year the government had earmarked 550 million kuna (103 million dollars) for fire-fighting activities. Of this, 120 million kuna (22.5 million dollars) was spent on the purchase of fire-fighting vehicles, and 65 million kuna (12 million dollars) were allocated to the defense ministry for the maintenance of Canadair aircraft and other equipment.

Croatian Defense Minister Roncevic said that this year Croatian Air Force planes had performed 5,764 flights as part of fire-fighting efforts and dropped 27,000 tons of water.