NATO and the European Union on Tuesday both told Croatia that the arrest and extradition of fugitive general Ante Gotovina to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague is the "final issue" to be solved before further integration. President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, who met Croatian President Stipe Medic in Brussels on Tuesday, said negotiations on E.U. entry planned for March 17 will only start if Gotovina is handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). "I have called on President Mesic to urgently do everything in his power to solve the Gotovina problem," Barroso said. Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after talks with Medic that the arrest of Gotovina was the "final issue" that remained to be settled with Croatia. "Gotovina should be imprisoned and handed over to the tribunal in The Hague," de Hoop Scheffer said. Mesic insisted that Zagreb was aware of its obligations to the international community and that if Gotovina was found in the country, he would be arrested and extradited. --More 2356 Local Time 2056 GMT
