Croatian support for EU integration slightly increases: poll

Support for Croatia's entry into the European Union has crept back up again slightly during the past few months to more than 50 percent, a survey showed Saturday.

Out of 2,000 people questioned, 53.2 percent said they supported Croatia's entry into the EU, the survey conducted by the independent Novi List daily showed.

Earlier this year the proportion was less than 50 percent of Croatians who backed their country's plans to join the 25-nation bloc.

It was a drastic decrease compared to the previous year when almost three quarters of Croatians backed EU integration.

Saturday's survey showed that 30 percent opposed EU membership, while the remaining 16.8 percent had no opinion.

Croatia's EU bid is hampered by the case of a fugitive former general wanted by the UN war crimes court at The Hague.

Brussels refused earlier this year to open membership talks with Zagreb due to its failure to locate and detain Ante Gotovina.

Gotovina went into hiding almost four years ago when the UN court charged him for alleged war crimes against ethnic Serbs at the end of Croatia's 1991-1995 independence war.

Zagreb claims he has fled the country but the UN court chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte insists he is hiding between Croatia and neighbouring Bosnia.