Croatia's EU accession talks have made considerable progress, and have entered their final stage, the EU-Croatia Stabilization and Association Council said during a meeting on Tuesday.
Croatia has been seeking European Union membership since June 2004, but talks have been repeatedly held up over Zagreb's failure to combat corruption, organized crime and intolerance of non-Croats.
Croatia is likely to become an EU member by 2011.
On Saturday, the president of Serbia and EU top diplomats refused to attend an informal summit of Balkan nations initiated by the prime ministers of Slovenia and Croatia in January.
The meeting intended to discuss the admission of the Balkan countries to the EU and could have become the largest gathering of Balkan leaders since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991.
BRUSSELS, March 23 (RIA Novosti)
