ZAGREB, Croatia, July 7 (UPI) -- Jadranka Kosor, 56, the head of the ruling center-right HDZ party, Tuesday took over the office of prime minister, the first woman to head the Croatian Cabinet.
Kosor won parliamentary approval on an 83-45 vote late Monday, replacing Ivo Sanader as both the prime minister and as the HDZ party leader, the Vecernji List Online reported.
Kosor, who until last week was a deputy prime minister and a deputy HDZ party leader, and Sanader met Tuesday morning for transition talks at the Banski Dvori government building in Zagreb's Old City.
Kosor retained a majority of Sanader's coalition government ministers and appointed only a few people to minor posts.
In a surprise resignation announced at a news conference in Zagreb Wednesday, Sanader failed to specify his reasons for his stepping down. However, he indicated he was dissatisfied with a long-standing-border issue with Slovenia that has stalled Croatian accession talks with the European Union.
Slovenia became member of the EU in 2004, the first and only country of the former six-republic Yugoslav federation to do so.
