Croatia's new president, Stipe Mesic, has the unusual record of having been both the last president of the former Yugoslavia and the first prime minister of Croatia, following the collapse of communist rule.

He has spent the last six years away from mainstream politics and he started his campaign for the presidential election as a rank outsider.

Mr Mesic, a pro-Europe centrist, quickly won over voters with his wit, charm and popular touch.

His accessible style is the exact opposite to the regal manner of the late President Franjo Tudjman which many Croats have come to resent.

One of Mr Mesic's election posters invited Croats to have coffee with him and he did his best to put this invitation into practice in the run-up to the polls by meeting ordinary people as often as possible.

"I will be different from Tudjman in everything. Where he was autocratic I will be democratic, where he was nationalist, I will be European," he said in a recent interview.

Imprisoned

Mr Mesic, 65, was born into a communist family which joined the partisans' fight against Nazi Germany and its Croatian allies in World War Two.

He studied law at Zagreb university and was jailed for two years for promoting Croatian nationalism during the Tito era in the early 1970s.

When multi-party politics returned to Croatia he joined Mr Tudjman's nationalist Croatian Democratic Union, the HDZ.

Mr Mesic became Croatia's first prime minister after the HDZ gained power in Croatia's first free elections in 1990.

The next year he was appointed to the rotating Yugoslav presidency, the first non-Communist to hold the post.

By then Croatia was at war with the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army and the Yugoslavia federation was in the process of disintegration.

He withdrew from the post a few weeks before Croatia's independence was formally recognised.

Split

Mr Mesic was made speaker of the Croatian parliament, the Sabor in 1992. But he became increasingly disenchanted with President Tudjman's authoritarian style and his interventionist policy in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Along with several other figures, Mr Mesic resigned from the HDZ in 1994 to form a new political movement.

But the timing was wrong. President Tudjman was still enjoying widespread popularity as the founding father of Croatian independence.

And support for the HDZ remained strong following Croatia's success in recapturing areas of the country previously controlled by Serb forces.

Pro-Europe

Three years ago Mr Mesic joined the small centrist HNS party which won just two seats in last month's parliamentary poll.

But his personality has evidently more than compensated for this weak political base.

Despite his years in the political wilderness, Mr Mesic has never been out of the limelight. He is an outstanding communicator and a popular media personality.

His leadership is likely to bring about a change of policies as well as style.

Mr Mesic has pledged to strip the presidency of some of the powers bestowed on it by Mr Tudjman and to help improve the quality of life in Croatia.

He has also promised to break with the intense nationalism of the Tudjman era, by opening Croatia up to Europe, ending interference in Bosnia's affairs and co-operating more closely with the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.