(27 Oct 2005)
1. Wide shot of Hampton Court palace, venue of EU leaders summit
2. Sanader walks to reporters outside
3. SOUNDBITE: (Croatian) Ivo Sanader, Croatian Prime minister: ROUGH TRANSLATION
"I had a few bilateral meetings, starting with a short one with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who congratulated me on Croatia's success in starting negotiations. I then met my old friend the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, the Slovakian prime minister, and leaders from Poland and Greece, and Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi. So I spoke with and met everyone, some long and some short meetings. I had a good talk with the Slovenian prime minister, and with a few other prime ministers regarding issues relating to assistance to Croatia in entry talk negotiations."
(Reporter: What about did you talk about with the Slovenian Prime Minister?)
"We agreed we wanted to sign an agreement about a fishing partnership."
4. Cutaway of cameraman
5. SOUNDBITE: (Croatian) Ivo Sanader, Croatian Prime minister: ROUGH TRANSLATION
"I talked yesterday with the British Deputy Prime Minister about the visa regime and he said he would speak about it with the British Prime Minister and I think we can expect some good news in 2006."
6. Sanader and officials
STORYLINE:
Britain on Wednesday pledged over 2.4 (m) million dollars to assist Croatia on its path to European Union membership, and said the country's bid to join the bloc underlined the need for EU expansion into the Balkans.
The EU opened entry talks with Croatia on October 3, after months of pressure on the country, formerly part of Yugoslavia, to cooperate more fully with the UN war crimes tribunal.
Britain, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, had insisted the EU should not start talks with Croatia until it cooperated with the court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, and capture a fugitive suspect indicted in mid-2001 for wartime atrocities against the Serbs.
The talks - a prelude to actual membership - were to due to start in March, but the EU postponed them because the fugitive, General Ante Gotovina, remained at large.
The EU agreed to open the talks after UN chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said this month that the country was cooperating fully with the tribunal.
Croatia claims that Gotovina fled the country long ago and so it could not arrest him, but nevertheless it has stepped up its search for him.
Some in the EU had questioned the government's readiness to hunt down Gotovina, who is revered as a war hero by many in Croatia.
Despite Britain's earlier tough stand, Sanader specifically thanked Britain after the talks started, as well as Austria, which pushed Croatia's case within the EU.
EU membership is the government's top goal, but only about 50 percent of Croats support it - mainly because of the EU's delays of talks and insistence that Gotovina be arrested.
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