ZAGREB (AFP) – A former official of Croatia’s World War II pro-Nazi regime suspected of war crimes has died in Argentina, the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center said yesterday. “Ivo Rojnica passed away last week in Argentina without being processed” for war crimes, the center’s Israel director Efraim Zuroff told AFP in a telephone interview. “This is the failure primarily by the Croatian judicial system,” Zuroff said, adding that Zagreb had been following up on the center’s demands to investigate Rojnica for the past two years without taking any action.

ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish President Abdullah Gul flew to gas-rich Turkmenistan yesterday for talks aimed at increasing economic cooperation. Speaking at the airport before his departure, Gul said the two countries would sign several agreements to boost trade and economic ties during his two-day stay in the Central Asian republic. He did not give details of the accords.

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said yesterday he was confident his conservative party would form a coalition government after talks with potential partners following last month’s close elections. “I would like to send a signal to the public that everything will be all right,” Sanader told journalists, referring to ongoing talks with a coalition of the Croatian Peasants’ Party and Croatian Liberal Party (HSS/HSLS). In the November 25 polls, the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won 66 seats, falling short of a majority in the 153-seat parliament. It has since gained the support of a Roma deputy. The main opposition Social Democrats (SDP) won 56 seats and have since secured 11 more places from smaller parties and a Muslim minority representative. The two major parties are now trying to win over the HSS/HSLS coalition which won eight seats. (AFP)

The Romanian parliament yesterday approved former Foreign Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu as head of the country’s foreign intelligence service. Ungureanu was forced to resign as foreign minister in April after he failed to inform Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu that two Romanians had been arrested in Iraq by US troops. His nomination as head of Romania’s foreign intelligence service was made by President Traian Basescu, in November. (AP)

Dan Iosif, one of the key figures in the 1989 Romanian revolution who stormed the Communist party headquarters and helped organize early street protests against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, died yesterday, officials said. He was 57. (AP)