Croatia's former Prime Minister Ivica Racan, who led the Balkan country's first pro-Western government in 2000-2003, died of cancer early on Sunday, said reports from the Croatian capital Zagreb.

Racan died in the Zagreb clinic hospital Rebro at the age of 63, after cancer discovered in February spread to his brain, his Social Democratic Party (SDP) said in a statement.

"Ivica Racan died at 3:05 a.m.(0105 GMT)," the statement said.

Racan, who recently stepped down as the leader of Croatia's strongest opposition party SDP, had a cancerous kidney and a metastasis in his right shoulder removed in a German hospital in mid-February. Doctors said this month that he had been in a critical condition for the past two weeks.

Croatian President Stjepan 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 onto its European path," Mesic said in a letter of condolence.

During his premiership between 2000 and 2003, Racan led a six-party 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.

Croatia signed a pre-membership agreement with the European Union and formally opened membership negotiations in October 2006.

His death, just months before November parliamentary elections, is a blow for the SDP.

Racan has been an emblem of the party and no other party member has reached his popularity.

The SDP -- ranked neck and neck with the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union in most polls -- are hoping to return to power in the elections.

Racan was born in February 1944 in Ebersbach, Germany, where his father died in a Nazi labor camp.

He started his political life in the former Yugoslavia during the 1980s, eventually becoming the leader of the Croatian Communist party in 1989.

Under his leadership, the Communist Party in Croatia agreed that new political parties could be formed -- introducing the multiparty system in Croatia and leading to the first multiparty elections in Croatia in 1990.

Party officials including Racan's deputy Zeljka Antunovic, Ljubo Jurcic and Milan Bandic have beeng mentioned by the Croatian media as possible successors to Racan when the SDP elects a new president at a convention on June 2.

Source: Xinhua