EU opent onderhandelingen met Servië over Stabilisatie- en Associatieverdrag, uitlevering Mladic heet hangijzer (en) - Main contents

Serbia and Montenegro was given a double boost on Thursday when the EU agreed a preliminary step in the long road to membership and the UN expressed its satisfaction that it was co-operating with its Hague war crime tribunal.

EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels agreed that talks should be opened with Serbia on a so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first formal link with a view to union membership for a country.

These agreements cover co-operation in justice and home affairs as well as economic and financial assistance and are an important political signal for any aspiring EU member.

Serbia also received positive news from Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Ms del Ponte said yesterday that she was pleased with Serbia's co-operatiion with the court.

"We are very pleased with the cooperation we received from Belgrade", she said adding "Finally we can say we have a reciprocal cooperation between the Hague and Belgrade".

Her words are also very important for Serbia's EU membership bid. Brussels had been looking to Ms del Ponte for her opinions on its co-operation with the Hague as it considered its relations with Belgrade.

In the past, Ms del Ponte had always given a negative assessment of Serbia's readiness to co-operate with her.

However, she expressed her disappointment at those fugitives still on the run.

"My disappointment - my big disappointment - is because six fugitives are still at large, most probably in Serbia, and that includes, of course, Mladic", Ms del Ponte said.

She believes the general is being sheltered by the Serb military and set December as a new deadline for his being turned in.

The Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic - accused along with Radavan Karadzic of genocide in the Bosnia war (1992-1995) - is high on the chief prosecutor's wanted list.

Looking to Croatia

The EU gave the go ahead to the stabilisation agreement despite the fact that Ratko Mladic is still at large.

This is a similar situation to Croatia, whose fugitive war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina also features high on Mrs del Ponte's list.

Belgrade is likely to be watching with interest how the situation with Croatia and its EU bid develops over the next few days.

Under pressure from Austria to consider giving Croatia a concrete timetable for opening membership talks with the EU, the bloc will not want to be seen as too lenient on Zagreb, which has been accused of not co-operating sufficiently with the Hague tribunal.

Many diplomats feel that to give a positive signal toward Croatia without some sort of Gotovina move from Zabreb would mean the EU would lose its leverage with Serbia.

Serbia and Montenegro's road to EU membership will be far from easy in any case, with Montenegro keen to hold a referendum on secession and to launch its own EU bid.

Meanwhile, the international community is still scratching its head over the neighbouring UN protectorate of Kosovo, which might gain independence next year or end up being attached to Serbia as a semi-autonomous province.