I hope Croatia will be able to ensure the transfer of Ante Gotovina to The Hague by March 17, the date set by the European Council at a summit last December for the start of membership talks with Croatia, Del Ponte told reporters in Sarajevo during her day-long visit. That condition must remain, she added.
Responding to a journalist's question, the chief prosecutor underlined that it would not be possible for the entry talks to start "without Gotovina in The Hague".
Del Ponte did not explicitly say that Gotovina was hiding in Croatia, but made it clear that she held the Croatian government responsible for apprehending the indicted general.
During her unscheduled visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Del Ponte met the international community's High Representative to the country, Paddy Ashdown, for talks on efforts to arrest the two most wanted fugitives indicted by the Hague tribunal, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic.
Del Ponte said it was intolerable that the two were not arrested ten years after they were indicted and after genocide was committed in Srebrenica.
This is the last year in which their arrest can be expected so that we can put them on trial, the prosecutor said. She threatened to go public with "all negative elements" that made it possible for Karadzic and Mladic to remain at large since 1995 unless the pair were arrested.
Del Ponte did not name the persons she holds responsible for failing to arrest Kardzic and Mladic, just saying that it was the responsibility of the international community and local authorities.
The responsibility of local authorities was also one of the reasons why the prosecutor held separate talks with Bosnian Serb Interior Minister Darko Matijasevic, but details of this meeting were not revealed.
Del Ponte said that her talks with Ashdown focused on "the strategy and modalities" of arresting war crimes indictees who are still on the run.
Ashdown said that the strategy contained "some new elements", but declined to talk about them.
Del Ponte went on to say that she expected confirmation of fresh indictments she had prepared by the end of 2004. She specified that there were six indictments covering ten persons.
Del Ponte travels to Podgorica where she is due to meet top Montenegrin officials on Wednesday.