ZAGREB (AFP) – EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn said yesterday that Croatia should enter the bloc by the end of the decade, but warned the country that hard work lies ahead. “We set the timetable for Croatia’s accession, providing that Prime Minister (Ivo) Sanader and the Croatian people succeed with their reforms, to around the end of the decade,” Rehn told reporters at the start of a two-day visit. Rehn said he expected Brussels to resolve within two years an institutional crisis caused by French and Dutch voter rejection of the European Union’s first constitution, allowing further enlargement. The main purpose of Rehn’s visit is to encourage Croatia to boost key judicial and corruption reforms.

SARAJEVO (AFP) – UN prosecutor Carla Del Ponte yesterday slammed Bosnian Serbs for a lack of cooperation with the war crimes court, notably the failure to arrest top fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Bosnia and Bosnian Serbs needed to be “more pro-active in tracking down war crimes indictees” because efforts thus far were “not satisfactory,” an official statement quoted Del Ponte as saying. The statement by the office of Bosnia’s top international envoy, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, came after she met with the German diplomat, who joined her in calling for local authorities to act more urgently on war crimes

Serbia’s President Boris Tadic said yesterday that NATO’s admission of the Balkan country into the alliance’s outreach program spells the end of isolation from the former foe. “By joining NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, Serbia becomes a secure country,” Tadic said, adding that the development marked a watershed for Serbia’s efforts at Euro-Atlantic integration. Tadic spoke the day after NATO leaders at the alliance summit in Riga, Latvia, invited Serbia, along with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, to join the program, which is considered a stepping stone to full NATO membership. “This is an assurance Serbia is firmly on track to join the European Union and NATO,” Tadic said. (AP)