Italy urges Slovenia, Croatia to resolve border dispute quickly

(ZAGREB) - Italy on Monday called for the speedy resolution of a border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia that has become a stumbling block for Zagreb's European Union candidacy.

"Italy hopes to see a rapid solution between Croatia and Slovenia and we hope the two governments try to find a resolution to this problem quickly," Italy's foreign minister Franco Frattini said here, after talks with top Croatian officials.

At an EU-Croatia conference last month, Slovenia vetoed the opening of nine of the 35 EU policy chapters for Croatia's candidacy because of the dispute over a small slice of land and sea that stretches back to their respective declarations of independence in 1991.

Frattini, who met with his Croatian counterpart Gordan Jandrokovic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, said he hoped the EU would be able to resolve the dispute during the Czech presidency of the bloc, which ends June 30.

Slovenia accuses Croatia of having handed biased documents to Brussels concerning the dispute.

The argument threatens Croatia's bid to complete membership negotiations by the end of the year, to pave the way for it becoming the 28th member of the bloc by 2010 or 2011.

The next inter-governmental EU-Croatia conference is scheduled for the end of February.