Croatia concedes no breakthrough yet on EU talks

Croatia's prime minister acknowledged Tuesday there is no hope of an immediate breakthrough to let Zagreb start EU entry talks, blocked due to lack of progress in finding a key war crimes suspect.

Speaking in Luxembourg, where he held talks with European Unionleaders, Ivo Sanader said the process of convincing the EU that Zagreb is fully cooperating with war crimes prosecutors could take weeks or months.

"There will be no breakthrough," he told AFP. "This is the start of a process which will be certainly of assistance and will be helpful ... to overcome this situation," he said.

"This is certainly (a) process which will last a couple of weeks and months," he added.

The 25-member EU refused last month to start negotiations because Croatia was not helping enough in the hunt for fugitive general Ante Gotovina, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yugloslavia (ICTY).

Gotovina is charged by the ICTY over 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.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, who chaired an EU "task force" monitoring how much Croatia is doing to help find Gotovina, reiterated that Zagreb must provide "full cooperation" with the ICTY.

"The keys to the EU door are held in the hands of the Croatian authorities," he said, adding: "Cooperation with the ICTY is a clear precondition wich is inescapable."

Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic voiced hope that the problem could be resolved quickly. "We sincerely hope that Croatia will begin accession negotiations in the near future, as soon as possible," she said.

The Croatian prime minister insisted Zagreb will do ultimately convince the EU to let it start talks.

"We're going to present our cooperation, especially in the period since March 17 and also our plans what we are going to do. There will be no breakthrough, this is not supposed to be today

"This is a first meeting, this is the start of the process in which the task force has to evaluate our cooperation," he added.