Former Prime Minister of Croatia, Ivica Racan, who led the country's first staunchly pro-western government in 2000-2003, has died aged 63.
Racan, who recently stepped down as the leader of Croatia's strongest opposition party, the Social Democrats, had a cancerous kidney removed in mid-February. Doctors said this month that the cancer had spread to Racan's brain and he had been in a critical condition for the past two weeks.
A former communist leader, Racan led a governing coalition that was fully committed to making Croatia a part of mainstream Europe after a decade of the authoritarian and nationalist rule of late President Franjo Tudjman.
During Racan's premiership, Croatia signed a pre-membership agreement with the European Union - a stepping stone for eventual membership. The country formally opened membership negotiations in October last year.
Although out of office for several years, Racan remained among the most popular politicians in Croatia.
His death, just months before November parliamentary elections, is a blow for the Social Democrats, which he transformed from a communist to a western-style centre-left group.
President Stipe Mesic said that "with his personality and political activities, Racan strongly marked . . . Croatia's recent history".
"He will be remembered as a man who enabled democratic changes in Croatia and a premier who steered Croatia on to its European path," Mesic said.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said he and Racan were "political rivals and we disagreed on a lot of things . . . but we were able to reach understanding and overcome partisan differences when it came to the national interest".
Although Racan's six-party coalition government had been hailed as a break from the Tudjman regime, it did not handle efficiently growing social problems, unemployment and economic difficulties. Racan also appeared to struggle to keep a lid on factional disputes and appeared indecisive in dealing with western demands to hand over war crimes suspects to the UN tribunal and with extremists at home who opposed prosecution of Croats. Racan's supporters praise him for leading efforts to bring democracy to Croatia. Mild-mannered and modest, he played tennis, listened to U2 and acknowledged smoking pot as a student.
Racan was born in 1944 in a Nazi labour camp in Ebersbach, Germany, where his father died. He started his political climb in former Yugoslavia during the 1980s, eventually becoming the leader of the Croatian Communist Party in 1989. A year later, he became a key player in the federation's demise by walking out of its annual congress to protest efforts by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic to crack down on independence movements.
Under his leadership, the communists agreed new political parties could be formed - introducing the multiparty system in Croatia and leading to the first free multiparty elections in Croatia in 1990.
