I met Carla Del Ponte yesterday and she told me she was preparing an assessment in which she would take into account a recent positive development, Straw told reporters at the end of the first day of a two-day informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Newport, Wales.
Straw confirmed that the EU task force evaluating Croatia's cooperation with the Hague tribunal would meet this month and expressed hope that the chief prosecutor would be attending.
He declined to comment on the assessment made by Del Ponte in Bern earlier in the day that Croatia was not yet fully cooperating with the tribunal.
I am not familiar with what she said, Straw said.
We have agreed that talks with Croatia will start when the EU estimates that it is fully cooperating with the Hague tribunal, said Straw, who currently chairs the Council of Ministers. We all want the talks to start and I am hoping for a positive assessment, he added.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said that the criterion of full cooperation with the Hague tribunal remained and that it could best be fulfilled by locating, arresting and transferring fugitive general Ante Gotovina to The Hague.
But full cooperation can also mean dealing a heavy blow to the network of his supporters and doing all that can be done to resolve this problem, Rehn added.
Hina learned from diplomatic sources that Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Italy and Austria strongly supported the opening of membership talks with Croatia as soon as possible, while Finland and Sweden led the opposition camp.
On Friday, the second day of the meeting, the European foreign ministers will be joined by their colleagues from Croatia and Turkey.