Negotiations on Croatia'saccession to the European Union (EU) was finally launched after Zagreb was found to be fully cooperating with the International Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced in Luxembourg early Tuesday.

"We've made a historic decision tonight on behalf of Croatia," Straw told a press conference at around 2:15 AM (0015 GMT) Tuesday.

The accession talks were launched after a meeting of an EU-Croatia task force on Monday night to assess ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte's report to the task force.

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said it was a great day for his country and pledged continued cooperation with the ICTY.

He said the cooperation is both an international obligation and domestic obligation as it is about the rule of law.

Rehn, EU commissioner for enlargement, refused to say whether the talks would conclude in 2009 as foreseen by him earlier in the year.

To set a date for the conclusion of the talks is not as relevant as to have Croatia carry out reforms to meet the criteria of the EU, he told the press conference.

Del Ponte on Monday night announced that Croatia is fully cooperating with the ICTY.

In her assessment report, del Ponte said the major remaining issue with Croatia is the arrest and transfer to her tribunal in The Hague of General Ante Gotovina, who was indicted in 2001 for war crimes against ethnic Serbs at the end of the 1991-1995 Serb-Croatian war.

"There is no evidence that Croatia is not doing everything it can to locate and arrest Ante Gotovina," she said in the report, but adding: "It is essential that Croatia continues to work with the same intensity, independently of any political development, internal or external."

Entry talks with Croatia were previously scheduled for March, but were delayed as Zagreb was not thought to be cooperating fully with the ICTY.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2005)