EU to rely on UN court's opinion in assessing Croatia's cooperation: Solana

A European Union task force will rely on the opinion of the UN war crimes court to determine whether Croatia was cooperating sufficiently with The Hague-based court to start EU accession talks, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in an interview published Monday.

"The final decision will be brought by EU member countries. But, have no doubt that the most important input will come from the tribunal," Solana told Jutarnji List daily newspaper.

EU foreign ministers refused to open membership talks with Croatia as scheduled on March 17 due to its failure to help find a war crimes fugitive, general Ante Gotovina.

Solana will be a member of the EU joint task force, which is also to include a representative from the EU presidency, European Commission and representatives from Britain and Austria, the countries next in line to take over the rotating presidency.

"We will also talk with Croatian authorities to see whether they are investing sufficent efforts. We would like to begin (membership) negotiations as soon as possible. We would like to see the Croatian government fully cooperating with the tribunal. The sooner the better," he stressed.

Croatian President Stipe Mesic on Saturday said he was confident that Zagreb would persuade the EU task force, due here by the end of April, that it was fulfilling its obligations to the tribunal.

"We will have enough information to persuade that monitoring (group) that we have done everything to track down fugitive Ante Gotovina," he said.

Gotovina is wanted by the UN tribunal for the alleged murder of ethnic Serbs at the end of the 1991-95 Serbo-Croatian war.

Mesic, who said recently he expected the membership talks to open by July, also reiterated Croatia's view that Gotovina was no longer in the country.