BELGRADE, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt said Monday in Zagreb that her government will provide necessary help to Ante Gotovina, an ex-general and war crimes suspect now on trial in The Hague.

    The government has ordered the release of frozen property and assets of Gotovina and Gotovina could apply for government aid for his defense, said the minister.

    Gotovina's lawyer can also request the Croatian government to stand bail for his client, she added.

    The Croatian government has allocated 10.5 million kuna (1.75 million US dollars) this year and will grant 11.2 million kuna (1.87 million dollars) next year for the defense or other judicial needs of all Croatian war crimes suspects on trial in the UN court, according to reports from Zagreb.

    Gotovina was third on the tribunal's most wanted list, next only to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his top commander Ratko Mladic, who are both accused of genocide.

    As the senior Croatian operational commander during the August 1995 campaign to retake Krajina, Gotovina was accused of giving his troops unrestrained freedom to plunder villages when they retook Krajina, which Croatia's Serbian minority had proclaimed as an independent state.

    He was arrested in Spain's Canary Islands late on Wednesday last week after having been on the run since mid-2001 when the UN war crimes tribunal indicted him. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in The Hague. Enditem