During the first session of the AVNOJ, Tito tasked KPH central committee member Pavle Gregorić with setting up a supreme political body of the national liberation movement in Croatia as soon as possible. A working groupAVNOJ Delegates from Croatia ("Vijećnici AVNOJ-a iz Hrvatske")was set up in Slunj in early December 1942, and the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia ("Zemaljsko antifašističko vijeće narodnog oslobođenja Hrvatske", ZAVNOH) was expected to convene in mid-January 1943. However, the Axis Case White offensive forced the plans to be postponed. The eight-member Initiative Committee of the ZAVNOH ("Inicijativni odbor ZAVNOH-a") was instead convened in the village of Ponori, near Korenica. The Initiative Committee was headed by three-member secretariat consisting of Gregorić, Stanko Ćanica-Opačić, and Šime Balen. Balen, a former HSS member who was persuaded to join the KPJ by KPH central-committee secretary Andrija Hebrang, later headed the ZAVNOH propaganda department. Another former HSS activist, Nikola Rubčić, was brought in as the editor of "Vjesnik" (the ZAVNOH's official newspaper).