Speaking to the press before the meeting, the British foreign minister said he and his EU counterparts would discuss a report by the task force assessing Croatia's cooperation with the Hague tribunal.
Straw said no decision was expected to be adopted today and that a new report by Carla del Ponte, the UN court's chief prosecutor, was expected in late August or early September, which he added would be discussed by the task force at its next meeting.
The EU high commissioner for the common foreign and security policy, Javier Solana, said the last meeting of the task force did not provide sufficient reasons to change the EU's position on the launching of Croatia's accession negotiations.
This EU task force met in London last Monday at the level of political directors. It concluded that Croatia had made certain headway towards the closure of the issue of Ante Gotovina, the fugitive general wanted by the Hague tribunal, but not enough to warrant the assessment that cooperation with the tribunal was full, which is the condition for opening the accession negotiations.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said it was necessary to see the results of the Croatian government's action plan to close the Gotovina issue. He said the decision could not be made in Brussels but in Zagreb.