Croatian president hopeful EU accession talks will start by July

Croatian President Stipe Mesic said Monday he expected his country's membership talks with the European Union, delayed over its failure to detain a key war crime suspect, to open by July, although the bloc did not give any possible new date to start them.

"I believe that it will happen already in the first half of the year," Mesic told the national radio.

"Many within the EU are aware of all the efforts Croatia has made, they are aware that Croatia should be the leader in this part of Europe."

The European Union refused last week to open accession talks with Croatia, which had been scheduled for March 17, due to the country's lack of full cooperation with the UN war crimes court at The Hague.

It followed Croatia's failure to locate and detain retired general Ante Gotovina, wanted by the UN tribunal for the alleged murder of ethnic Serbs at the end of the 1991-95 Serbo-Croatian war.

EU leaders told Zagreb that the door to membership would be opened as soon as it provided full cooperation with the UN court, without hinting at any possible new date to start accession talks.

Asked whether he believed that Croatia would arrest Gotovina by the end of the year, Mesic replied that it would be "very difficult" reiterating Zagreb's view that according to all information it had the fugitive was not in the country.

"Full cooperation with The Hague court does not mean to extradite Gotovina if he is not in Croatia, but that we have to show that we are able to bring to justice those who have been helping him," Mesic said.

Croatian authorities insist that Gotovina, who has been on the run since 2001, has fled the country despite contradictory reports from chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

Most Croatians regard Gotovina as a hero of the war of independence from the former Yugoslavia, opposed by Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs. He is accused of the murder of at least 150 ethnic Serbs in a 1995 operation that ended the conflict.