CROATIAN authorities are deliberately sabotaging efforts by Britain and the United States to help to locate Croatian General Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the war crimes investigators, Western officials say.

London and Washington have been supplying Croatia with substantial intelligence that would help Zagreb to find and arrest General Gotovina, 49, who has been in hiding since 2001, when an indictment was issued against him, but the Government has failed to do so.

The diplomatic stand-off threatens to delay the start of Croatia’s accession talks with the European Union, scheduled for March 17. Last month EU foreign ministers made clear that the surrender of the general was a prerequisite for negotiations to begin.

“Britain and the United States have been making serious efforts to supply Croatia with the information needed to find Gotovina, but these have been repeatedly sabotaged,” a senior Western official told The Times. “We felt that Croatian officials — although not at prime ministerial or presidential levels — both last year and the year before were being not just unhelpful, but were also giving Gotovina information enabling him to flee attempts to locate and arrest him. Information has also been leaked to the nationalist press in Croatia about what we are doing.”

Ivo Sanader, the Croatian Prime Minister, has said that General Gotovina must surrender to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Would you live on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall?
• Wish you were here, says Iraq tourist board
• Russian policeman’s corruption plea to Putin