Croatia’s top war crimes fugitive has been jailed in Madrid following his capture at a luxury resort on the Canary Islands after four years on the run, officials said.

A HIGH court judge ruled yesterday that Croatian war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina should be handed to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Croatian war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina arrived at Madrid’s high court today ahead of his extradition to the UN war crimes tribunal, Spain’s Interior Ministry said.

The chief UN war crimes prosecutor today said that the top Croatian war crimes fugitive, Gen. Ante Gotovina, had been arrested in Spain’s Canary Islands after four years on the run.

British deputy prime minister John Prescott is to meet top officials in Croatia today, just weeks after the European Union opened membership talks with the ex-Yugoslav country.

The European Union opened membership talks with Croatia after the United Nations war crimes tribunal’s chief prosecutor said the government in Zagreb was now co-operating fully with efforts to bring a suspect to trial.

Croatian and British security experts were today following up leads after a mailroom bomb that injured a local employee at the British Embassy in the Croat capital Zagreb.

The arrest of an alleged Croatian underworld boss in Greece has raised hopes that one of the UN war crimes tribunal’s most wanted suspects is also within grasp.

HAD the International Criminal Court existed in 1922, Michael Collins, Tom Barry, Sean Haughey, Dan Breen and, possibly, Eamon de Valera would almost certainly have been forced to answer to it following the war of independence.

Ann Cahill, Europe Correspondent

The European Union will delay the opening of membership talks with Croatia at least until March, giving Zagreb three months to bring an indicted war criminal to justice, sources said today.

Pope John Paul wrapped up his gruelling 100th foreign pilgrimage today with a stop in Zadar, a hotbed of nationalism where locals revere a fugitive general wanted on war crimes charges.

A Croat general, believed to have been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal, is ready to surrender, Prime Minister Ivica Racan said today.