The European Commission president, Romano Prodi, has promised early EU help for the new Croatian government.

Speaking to reporters in Zagreb, Mr Prodi said the EU would help Croatia in its social and economic development and promote a stable and lasting peace in the region.

He had earlier held more than an hour of talks with the country's next prime minister, Ivica Racan, president of the Social Democratic Party who led the centre-left opposit9on alliance to a sweeping victory in elections earlier this month.

Mr Prodi announced that political dialogue between Croatia and the European Commission would re-open in February, after being suspended since Croatia's military offensive in 1995 to recapture lands seized by minority Serbs, who rebelled against the country's independence from the former Yugoslavia in 199l.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service