BRUSSELS, Sept 7 (Reuter) - The European Commission will go

on providing humanitarian aid to Croatia despite the eviction of

Kraijina Serbs in a Croatian offensive last month, a Commission

spokesman said on Thursday.

He said Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Emma Bonino had

made the pledge during an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday with

Croatian Vice President Ivica Kostovic in Brussels.

"She said the Commission would continue to provide an

adequate response depending on budget availability," the

spokesman told reporters.

The Commission, which has provided around $320 million in

aid to Croatia since 1991, estimates there now are approaching

half a million refugees or displaced people in the country, the

victims either of ethnic cleansing or the tides of war.

But, Bonino made no link between continued aid to Zagreb and

the return of the evicted Serbs, despite the fact that the

Commission has condemned ethnic cleansing and Croatia has been

accused of doing just that in its offensive in August to reclaim

the breakaway Kraijina region from local Serbs.

"It is emergency aid which is therefore applied in an

unconditional manner," the spokesman said.

REUTER