ZAGREB, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Croatia's top opposition leader and former prime minister Ivica Racan said he was diagnosed an "atypical tumour" in his shoulder which would temporarily force him out of politics, state news agency Hina said on Wednesday.

Racan, 62, told Hina he would undergo a surgery on his right shoulder soon, maybe next week, and that he would decide on his future political career after the treatment.

"Depending on the outcome of the surgery, I will decide whether I will return to politics or leave it definitely," he was quoted by Hina as saying.

As prime minister between 2000 and 2003 Racan led the country out of a nationalist rule isolation in the late 1990s and kicked off Croatia's drive towards EU membership. His Social Democrats lost elections to conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in November 2003.

Croatia will hold elections later this year, most likely again in November, and Racan was considered one of the main opposition candidates for the prime ministerial post.

In most recent opinion polls his party fared slightly behind the ruling conservatives.

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