The Croatian government today held an emergency session to discuss how it will deal with the first indictments from the UN war crimes tribunal against its.
The UN indictments for wartime crimes against Serbs is seen as the most serious challenge the Zagreb's reformist government.
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Ms Carla Del Ponte, meets Mr Ivica Racan in Zagreb yesterday
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The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Ms Carla Del Ponte, told Croatian Prime Minister Mr Ivica Racan yesterday she had rejected his objections to the indictments - served a month ago together with arrest warrants - and urged him to act without delay.
Most analysts and officials had believed Croatia could win another grace period from the tribunal until the seaside tourist season ended in September.
But now, buoyed by newly reformist Serbia's quick hand-over of fallen nationalist autocrat Slobodan Milosevic to the tribunal last week, Ms Del Ponte did not wait.
Mr Racan called the emergency meeting of the cabinet and the leaders of the five parties that make up the ruling coalition this afternoon to decide on the next moves .
On top of probable nationalist protests, Mr Racan may encounter problems with his key coalition allies, the Social Liberal party (HSLS), who have opposed hand-overs of Croatian officials.
An HSLS council meeting held this morning was to discuss the indictments, among other things.
It was unknown how many names were listed on the two sealed indictments, but they were likely to include retired or serving army generals who took part in the 1991-95 war with minority Serb rebels opposing Zagreb's independence from Yugoslavia.