"This is the only remaining obstacle to the cooperation of Croatia with the ICTY. As soon as Gotovina will be in The Hague, it will be possible to say that, indeed, Croatia is cooperating fully with the Tribunal," she said.
Mentioning Gotovina as one the ICTY's three most wanted fugitives, alongside Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, del Ponte said that unless they were extradited in the next few months, the deadlines of the tribunal's exit strategy would have to be re-examined.
She said that Gotovina's extradition was of paramount importance for the exit strategy, adding that responsibility for his transfer to the ICTY lay with the Croatian Government.
Del Ponte said that since his disappearance in June 2001, Gotovina had repeatedly been seen in Croatia, the last time in the summer of 2004.
The chief prosecutor underlined that Croatian authorities had invested considerable effort to track Gotovina down, but expressed doubt as to the seriousness of those efforts because they had been fruitless so far.
Del Ponte said Gotovina enjoyed a hero's status in Croatia and that the network of those protecting him was very strong.
She said that until Gotovina was transferred to The Hague, it would mean that those networks were stronger than the Government which wanted to cooperate with the tribunal.