Croatia May Still End EU Talks This Year - Rehn

Croatia has long set itself the target of concluding talks this year and becoming EU member in 2010 or 2011.

Croatia may still wrap up European Union accession talks this year, the bloc's enlargement chief said on Friday, urging quick progress in the negotiations which have been overshadowed by a border row with Slovenia.

EU-member Slovenia has vetoed 11 -- roughly one-third -- of negotiating areas in Zagreb's EU bid because of a dispute over small parts of their land and sea border that dates back to the time when the two countries quit communist Yugoslavia in 1991.

Croatia has long set itself the target of concluding talks this year and becoming EU member in 2010 or 2011.

"So far Croatia has been working effectively towards this target timeline and it is possible still to maintain this target timeline," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a news conference.

NATO also urged Slovenia on Friday to do all it could to resolve a dispute threatening to prevent its neighbour joining the alliance along with Albania at an April 3-4 summit.

"I think everyone involved, including Slovenia, should do everything they can to make that happen. I am not hiding my concern," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after a NATO meeting in Krakow.

"I call on those people in Slovenia to make it possible following whatever procedure."

Slovenia's government backs its neighbour's NATO membership, but a non-parliamentary nationalist group has demanded a referendum on the issue, saying Croatia should not join the alliance because of the territorial row.

The Party of the Slovenian Nation (SSN) has until March 26 to collect 40,000 signatures required to bring about a vote.

Unless the referendum demand is dropped, Slovenia will not be able to send its formal ratification document to Washington by March 23, which is required from all member states in order to welcome Croatia and Albania at the April summit.

"NEGATIVE TREND"

Croatia said on Friday Prime Minister Ivo Sanader would meet Slovenia's Prime Minister Borut Pahor at a popular Slovenian golf resort near the border with Croatia on Tuesday. It will be their first meeting since Pahor took office last September.

The EU's Rehn said to be able to wrap up bloc accession talks this year, Croatia should conclude negotiations in a number of areas at the next meeting with EU officials planned for the end of March, and open talks in other areas.

"I plead to the leaders of the two countries that they would now counter this negative trend," Rehn said.

He urged them to respond by early March to his proposal for Finnish Nobel peace prize winner Marti Ahtisaari to mediate in the dispute.

Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic said on Tuesday Zagreb might not complete EU entry talks this year, the first official to concede that Croatia's EU timetable may be off track.

Mesic said a delay could not be entirely blamed on the row with Slovenia, but also on delays in reforms.