The European Union (EU) has kept its promise about launching entry negotiations, but the process depends on the speed at which Croatia will adopt and carry out reforms, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in Zagreb on Saturday.

Rehn, who was on a Balkan tour, congratulated Croatia on the EU entry negotiations, which was opened on Tuesday, attributing it to economic and political reforms and full cooperation with the tribunal in The Hague, reported the Croatian HINA news agency.

"I would like to thank Olli Rehn for keeping the promise that the negotiations would start on the day it was assessed that Croatia was cooperating fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)," said Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

Croatia could have started EU entry negotiations in March this year, but the talks were delayed indefinitely when Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of ICTY, accused Zagreb of doing too little to catch top war crimes suspect General Ante Gotovina.

Gotovina is wanted by the ICTY for war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs 10 years ago, but has been on the run since 2001.

Sanader said the screening process, which evaluates the adjustment of Croatian laws with EU standards, would start on Oct.20 and hoped that negotiations on some chapters would be opened soon and closed quickly.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel has said that Croatia would have to close 35 negotiating chapters, which could take four years, as long as Slovenia needed.

At a meeting with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Saturday, Rehn said it was estimated that the results of the negotiations would be successful for both the EU and Croatia as well as the entire region.

Rehn also underlined the importance of cooperation with the ICTY and the continuation of the ethnic Serb refugees' return and reconciliation processes, Mesic's office said in a statement.

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2005)