Croatian President Stipe Mesic wrapped up two days of talks with the European Union on Wednesday with no sign he'd overcome a dispute over a fugitive general that risks derailing Croatia's hopes of starting membership talks in two weeks. «I know what we need to do, and we will do it and achieve it much more easily if we have support from others,» Mesic told reporters after talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. The EU is insisting Croatia must show full cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal before starting official membership talks on March 17. It wants Croatia to capture retired Gen. Ante Gotovina and extradite him to the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands. «We hope they will have a solution, and the president knows very well what is the situation now,» Solana said. Mesic said Tuesday he believed retired Gen. Ante Gotovina was no longer in Croatia, and that the fugitive's status should not delay his country's moves toward NATO and EU membership. He said Croatian authorities had sent a letter to EU and NATO governments with «hundreds of pages» of evidence showing their efforts to locate Gotovina and cooperate with the tribunal. Croat Prime Minister Ivo Sanader warned Wednesday that postponing EU membership talks would raise anti-European sentiments and strengthen nationalists across the Balkan region. «A negative decision would lift anti-European sentiments and strengthen radical elements across the region,» Sanader told reporters, just hours after the release of an EU-commissioned poll indicating only one-third of Croats now support EU membership.
