EU presses Croatia again on war crimes suspect

The European Union on Monday reiterated that Croatia could not hope to start EU entry talks until Zagreb gives full cooperation with war crimes prosecutors, ahead of new talks on the standoff.

EU officials downplayed hopes of a breakthrough at the talks Tuesday, which come after the EU refused to start the talks last month due to Zagreb's lack of cooperation in finding a key Croatian war crimes suspect.

"There has been some slight progress but nothing substantial" in the hunt for fugitive general Ante Gotovina, one EU official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Gotovina is charged by the UN war crimes court in the Dutch city for alleged war crimes against ethnic Serbs at the end of 1991-95 Serbo-Croatian war. Zagreb has insisted it has no knowledge of his whereabouts.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was "fundamental" that Croatia help ensure the capture of Gotovina and his transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yugloslavia (ICTY).

"We are going to talk to them very frankly, to see how things are moving," Solana said on arrival at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, expected to meet with a Croatia delegation on Tuesday.

The EU refused last month to start planned entry talks with Croatia after Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the Hague-based ICTY, said she was not receiving full cooperation from Zagreb in the hunt for Gotovina.

Del Ponte has been invited to the Luxembourg meeting, but there have been few signs that she will change her verdict that Zagreb is doing enough to help her.

"We would like very much to move the process forward. But we need ... full cooperation" from Zagreb with the ICTY, said Solana. "Cooperation with the tribunal is fundamental.

"The objective is clear, that Gotovina is in The Hague," he added.

There have been few signs of progress since last month on the Gotovina issue -- although Croatia's president said at the weekend that Zagreb had asked Israel to extradite a tycoon, suspected of being a supporter of Gotovina.

The Croatian government has identified Hrvoje Petrac as a key assistant to Gotovina, President Stipe Mesic said Saturday.

Also on Saturday a Croatian businessman, Stanko Banic, accused Transport and Tourism Minister Bozidar Kalmeta of being part of a support network helping Gotovina.

Banic, who was at the time director of a shipping company based in the coastal town of Zadar, said that Kalmeta, then the town's mayor, asked him to finance Gotovina and his family.

The Croatian minister denied the allegations, calling it politically motivated ahead of local elections next month.

"This is clearly a well-organized and timed action ahead of local polls aimed at discrediting me," Kalmeta said.

Croatia hopes to begin membership talks by the end of June and join the EU by the end of the decade.

Solana also noted that del Ponte was due to address the UN Security Council in New York on June 13, warning it would be bad news for Zagreb if no progress had been made by then.

"The report (by del Ponte) had better be positive at that time, otherwise the (UN) Security Council will be engaged again on that issue," he told reporters.