If it is too heavy-handed, it could bolster Croat suspicions that the world is more interested in Croatian war crimes than in Serbian ones.

ECONOMIST: Franjo Tudjman, awkward Balkan survivor

Less than 20 years ago, the fledgling nation of Croatia was in the throes of the bitter Croatian War of Independence as it declared sovereignty from Yugoslavia.

BBC: Croatia��s adventurous heart

In the short term, though, Mr Sanader will have to resolve the problem of Ante Gotovina, a Croatian general indicted by the war-crimes tribunal in The Hague.

ECONOMIST: The return of the nationalists

Picula told Reuters Del Ponte and Racan would probably seek to speed up the process of tracking down and extraditing war criminals and added that the Croatian judiciary itself would also want to play an active part.

CNN: Croatian papers

Indeed, some who had come back were recently arrested on war-crimes charges, even though the Croatian authorities had told them that their records were clear.

ECONOMIST: Will Serbs go back to Croatia?

It is another question whether they can attract a large crowd - as they did a few months ago when a Croatian general, Marko Norac, was facing trial at home on war crimes charges.

BBC: Croatia's war crimes legacy

Serbia's path to becoming an EU candidate was given a boost last year when two major war crimes suspects - former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic and former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic - were arrested.

BBC: EU leaders grant Serbia candidate status

The Cassa di Risparmio kept its cross-border contacts during the cold war, says Roberto Verginella, the bank's chairman, and it was encouraged by the Croatian central bank to open the Zagreb subsidiary.

ECONOMIST: Borderline banking

The report welcomed a Croatian court ruling in January granting compensation to the children of Serbs killed in a village - Varivode - during the war in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

BBC: EU backs Croatia to join in July as 28th member state