"Today I have assured my Croatian counterpart that Slovakia unreservedly supports the opening of talks on March 17," Dzurinda said after meeting Sanader, stressing that the information available to Slovakia showed that Croatia was cooperating with European institutions.
Slovakia had also strongly supported Croatia at Thursday's meeting of COREPER, the committee of permanent representatives of EU member states, where the ambassadors harmonised their views ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers scheduled for March 16, when a final decision will be taken on whether or not the membership talks would start next day.
"It would be good for Slovakia and the EU, and for the countries of the former Yugoslavia, and of course for Croatia if talks started on March 17," the Slovak prime minister said.
EU president Luxembourg concluded after the debate by EU ambassadors in Brussels on Thursday that there was no agreement that Croatia had met the condition of full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal.
Most member states agreed that talks with Croatia should be delayed because it had failed to arrest Gotovina and transfer him to the Hague tribunal. Apart from Slovakia, only Austria, Hungary and Slovenia expressed their unreserved support for the talks to start on March 17.
Reiterating that Croatia was doing all in its power to resolve the Gotovina issue, Sanader announced that Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, who is accompanying him in Bratislava, would send a letter to Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Asselborn later today to update him on the latest steps Croatia had taken in order to close this last outstanding issue.
Sanader said that there was no information indicating that Gotovina was hiding in Croatia, and called on anyone who might have any information to the contrary to share it with Zagreb.
He proposed setting up a task force that would consist of Croatian services and services of EU countries claiming that Gotovina is in Croatia in order to find the fugitive general's whereabouts together.
Both prime ministers highlighted very good bilateral relations, saying that Zagreb and Bratislava were interested in further cooperation in many fields.
Sanader, who also met Slovak Parliament Speaker Pavol Hrusovsky, also pointed out very good cooperation between the two countries with regard to national minorities.
The Croatian delegation is due to visit the Croatian community in Devinsko Novo Selo, where a Croatian cultural centre and a museum are being built.