The chances of the European Union starting membership negotiations with Croatia next week were extremely slim Wednesday because several EU nations believe Zagreb has failed to fully cooperate with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, diplomats said. EU ambassadors will assess the issue on Thursday, but diplomats said there was widespread resistance to starting the negotiations on March 17 as originally planned. EU officials said Chief U.N. prosecutor Carla Del Ponte wrote the 25 EU members last week, saying that Croatian war crimes suspect retired Gen. Ante Gotovina was within reach of Croatian authorities yet that they failed to arrest him. The Zagreb government claims Gotovina has left Croatia. The Croatian government had clearly failed to cooperate fully with U.N. prosecutors, an EU diplomat said on the condition of anonymity. --mor 1430 Local Time 1130 GMT
