I said that we received a number of reports from the (Croatian) task force set up last year and whose results so far, unfortunately, have been very limited, Brammertz told reporters after briefing European Union foreign ministers about his assessment of Croatia's and Serbia's cooperation with the Hague tribunal.

I visited Croatia several days ago, talked with government representatives and was assured that investigations would continue and be expanded, that now many avenues which my office identified several months ago would be more aggressively investigated. I have no reason to doubt that, but I very much hope that there will be additional results in the near future, said Brammertz.

He added that several ministers had asked about Croatia and that he had given only a technical evaluation of its cooperation with the tribunal, which he said was his responsibility, but that it was up to others to give the evaluation the required political weight.

Brammertz's appraisal will play a big role in deciding on the opening of negotiations on the Judiciary and Fundamental Rights policy chapter in Croatia's EU entry talks. The Council of the EU task force for enlargement and the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) are expected to make a decision in the next two weeks if the chapter is to be opened at an accession conference scheduled for June 30.

Brammertz said he had thanked EU bodies, saying their policy of conditioning had helped a lot in making former Yugoslav countries start to cooperate with the Hague tribunal.

I asked European institutions to continue with their support, he said.

Speaking of Serbia, Brammertz said Belgrade in general was cooperating well, adding that cooperation had improved in recent months, but that Belgrade should do more in order to arrest fugitive indictees Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.

Their arrest is the highest priority. Fifteen years after the genocide it is time to close this chapter. There is no alternative to arresting the fugitives, he said.