Croatians object to Kostunica's presence

Thousands of protesters are expected in the Croatian capital of Zagreb today as the 15 EU heads of government meet their counterparts from Croatia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Albania and Slovenia.

The demonstrators, most of whom are war veterans and right-wing nationalists, object to the presence in Zagreb of Yugoslavia's president, Vojislav Kostunica. Opinion polls show that almost 50 per cent of Croatians believe Mr Kostunica should not have been invited to the summit before he apologised for Serbian aggression towards Croatia during the past decade.

Mr Kostunica has made it clear that he does not intend to make any such apology.

Today's summit was arranged at the initiative of the French president, Mr Jacques Chirac, as a way of encouraging the Balkan states to embrace democratic values and the market economy. The EU agreed this week to provide €4.5 billion in assistance to the region and the states taking part in the summit will be invited to sign association agreements with the EU.

Although the summit has been planned since July it took on a fresh significance after the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic and the return of Serbia to the democratic fold.

The gathering was initially conceived as an attempt to "ringfence" Milosevic. But a European diplomat in Brussels now described its role as: " . . . about welcoming the whole of the region to the democratic family, to make commitments for reform and establish the framework for regional co-operation". Such has been the warmth of Mr Kostunica's reception in western Europe that Belgrade's neighbours are worried that Serbia will elbow them out of the way in the long race to join the EU.

Although Slovenia can expect to be part of the first wave of new EU members, possibly in 2004, the rest of the region is lagging behind. The corrupt nationalist regime of Franjo Tudjman put a break on political and economic development in Croatia but Zagreb's new government has made impressive progress.

Croatia's leaders now fear they will have to wait for other countries in the region to catch up before all join the EU together. Deeply conscious of their Central European identity politicians such as Croatia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Vesna Cvetkovic-Kurelec, are suspicious of the EU's intentions.

"Croatia doesn't want to be treated as second class because of what Tudjman's gang did. We will promote co-operation in the region with all our power. But we need individual access to the EU. We cannot be prisoners of our surroundings," she said.

A Government spokesman said last night that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair held a two and a half hour meeting on Northern Ireland during their flight from London to Zagreb where they are attending a European Union Balkans summit.

"They discussed how both they and the Northern Ireland parties could progress the successful aspects of the peace process further as well as the issues that need to be addressed to achieve an end to the current difficulties in the implementation of the Good Friday agreement.

"The agreed that there would be intensive discussions at all levels over the next two weeks in a further effort to make progress in this regard," he said.