Croatia, moving to rescue its European Union membership bid, ordered police and intelligence services on Tuesday to step up the hunt for a top fugitive wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal. President Stjepan Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader issued a rare joint statement a day after the EU's executive Commission threatened to postpone the launch of membership talks in March over Zagreb's failure to arrest General Ante Gotovina.
It was the first time the two leaders publicly ordered increased efforts to track down Gotovina, who has been in hiding since he was indicted in 2001 for war crimes against Serbs.
"We request that all relevant institutions ... step up activities in co-operation with other countries to track down and arrest general Gotovina and hand him over to the Hague tribunal," Sanader and Mesic said in a statement issued by the president's office after their meeting.
But they also said all relevant information indicated that he was not in the former Yugoslav republic.
Until now, Croatia has mostly urged the 49-year old former foreign legion veteran, who also has a French passport, to surrender voluntarily.
Many Croats see him as a hero of the 1991-95 war of independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, a status which the government has tacitly tolerated.
The European Commission said on Monday that Zagreb was not doing enough to hand over the general, saying he was believed to be in Croatia or in Croat parts of neighbouring Bosnia.
Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt told Reuters on Tuesday that Croatia no longer wanted its honesty and commitment challenged by the UN tribunal.
"We are just as unhappy that Gotovina is not before the tribunal. It is the only place where he can answer charges against him," she said after meeting the tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte.
The European Commission was relying mostly on del Ponte's recommendations in assessing Zagreb's co-operation.
"The prosecutor was angered by our calls for Gotovina to surrender and did not believe we were ready to go out and arrest him. So it's high time we said it openly - we are determined to locate, arrest and hand over Gotovina," Skare Ozbolt said. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Monday the Commission believed the Zagreb government had been in indirect contact with the former general. Skare Ozbolt denied this.
"We have had no contact with Gotovina but we have sent out some people to try to find him," she said.
"So far there has been no feedback. There was one lead that he might be hiding in Bosnia. We are checking up on it and have informed the tribunal of our actions. But I doubt he will be there. The man is a legionnaire and could go anywhere."
Gotovina is accused of being responsible for excessive use of artillery, the deaths of Serb civilians and widespread looting during a 1995 offensive against rebel Serbs. Zagreb insists he is not in Croatia.