July 10, 2006 8:16 AM

SMILJAN, Croatia-Croatia on Monday marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of an ethnic Serb who was one of the pioneer electrical inventors, an honor symbolizing reconciliation after the bloody 1990s Serbo-Croat war.

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in the remote village of Smiljan in central Croatia, but made most of his inventions in the United States, including the alternating current motor installed at the first Niagara Falls hydroelectric power system.

Officials from Serbia and the United States joined Croatians at Monday's ceremony opening the Nikola Tesla memorial center at his birthplace.

"Today, we are celebrating Tesla the Serb, the son of Croatia and the citizen of the world," said Croatian President Stipe Mesic. Tesla's motto, that he was equally proud of his Serbian origin and his Croatian homeland, should serve as "our guidance for the future," Mesic said.

U.S. President George W. Bush sent a message, saying "the United States is proud of Tesla, whose roots are from Croatia, Serbia but also America."

"I appreciate the idea of a lasting reconciliation that this event symbolizes," Bush said in a message delivered by U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Robert Anthony Bradke.

Serbian President Boris Tadic emphasized that Croats and Serbs have had "many great moments in the past ... and big opportunities in the future."

A Croatian Serb 1991 rebellion, backed by Serbia, triggered the Serbo-Croat war, which killed thousands of people and only ended in 1995. But the two countries are steadily improving their relations, and Tadic and Mesic last month declared "the times of war are definitely over."

Although Tesla was awarded patents on every aspect of the modern system for generating and distributing electricity, he was not honored in his native land in the recent past because he was an ethnic Serb. His house in Smiljan was left to ruin and his monument in a nearby city was blown up.

But that all changed when Croatia began to reject its past nationalism and improve its treatment of minority Serbs, a condition for the European Union membership it aspires too.

Parliament declared 2006 Tesla's year and the government invested 56 million kuna (€7 million; US$8.75 million) to restore his birthplace and turn it into a memorial center.

"Some wanted to forget Tesla, the Serb," Mesic said. "But that is now behind us."

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, whose ruling party once was a pillar of nationalism in Croatia, said Tesla "was one of the greatest people of all human kind."

"We are proud to share this celebration together with Serbia and the United States," he said.

Tesla died in New York in 1943 at the age of 86.