At the start of the trial of Bosnian Serb wartime military leader Ratko Mladic at the Hague-based UN tribunal on Wednesday, prosecutor Dermot Groome said in his opening statement that General Mladic's criminal intent was to ethnically cleanse non-Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina and to exterminate Bosnian Muslims and Croats from a great part of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina to which Serbs laid claim.

Polish state officials said on Monday that their country was willing to share with Croatia its experience in absorbing European Union funds, while Croatian officials said that such assistance would be valuable. They were speaking at a conference on regional development and EU funds in the southern coastal city of Split.