SARAJEVO, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Two Bosnian leaders on Friday signed a much-delayed agreement paving the way for an inter-ethnic national police force, after international pressure was exerted on the Bosnian Serb side, reports said.

The prime minister for the Serb-run half of the country, Milorad Dodik, signed the protocol with Muslim leader Haris Silajdzic following talks in Sarajevo, the FENA agency reported.

'We have found certain solutions. We signed a protocol,' FENA quoted Silajdzic, the Muslim member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, as saying.

PARIS, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is to travel to Turkey next Friday for talks on regional security and Ankara's bid to join the European Union, which Paris opposes, his ministry said.

'It will be an opportunity for the minister to discuss bilateral issues, Turkey's relationship with the EU and the regional situation since the country is in an area close to conflict zones,' said spokesman Frederic Desagneaux.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - International pressure to force out government leaders in the Bosnian Serb-run part of Bosnia will be met with retaliation, the chief of the administration warned Friday.

'If you (the international community) intend to sack Milorad Dodik or any other Bosnian Serb official due to police reforms, you will have problems,' Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told local BN television, referring to himself and colleagues.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - The top international envoy to Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak, warned on Wednesday that a deadline was nearing for the country to agree on key police reforms.

'Time is running out, the deadline to adopt a protocol (on police reforms) is September 30,' he said in an address to Bosnian Serb lawmakers.

'Too much time has been lost and if there is no agreement by Sunday, you will lose even more time' on sealing a deal on closer ties with the European Union, said the Slovak diplomat.

NEW YORK, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday that he would meet with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan to discuss Ankara's contentious bid to join the European Union.

Kouchner said he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy 'spent one-hour-and-a-half with Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan yesterday and we decided that the Turkish foreign minister and I will be in charge to establish a sort of working group to consider the whole possibilities' on Turkey's EU membership.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission warned Bosnia on Tuesday that it was hurting its own interests by failing to agree on the key issue of police reforms.

'Your country is inflicting on yourself very serious sanctions by delaying' the signing of an agreement on closer ties with the European Union, Dimitris Kourkoulas, head of the EC mission to Bosnia, told journalists.

The Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU is seen as the first step for Balkan countries towards membership in the 27-nation bloc.

PARIS, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy reaffirmed on Thursday he did not believe Turkey should be admitted to the European Union, while calling for a 'true partnership' with the mainly-Muslim nation.

'I do not believe that Turkey belongs in Europe, and for a simple reason, which is that it is in Asia minor,' Sarkozy said in a prime-time interview on TF1 and France 2 television.

ANKARA, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Monday that his government would draw up a new programme of reforms to boost its bid to join the European Union ahead of a key report on Ankara's progress in accession talks.

'Our government is planning to put into place a programme that will be drawn up, announced and monitored in three-month periods,' Babacan was quoted by the Anatolia news agency as saying here.

'The most important component of the new reform programme will be harmonising Turkish law with the EU acquis,' he added.

BRUSSELS, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission gave a lukewarm reception Thursday to French demands to set up a group of 'wise men' to debate the EU's future as a condition for not blocking membership talks with Turkey.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters that the call by French President Nicolas Sarkozy was 'interesting' but that 'it would be independent work which would not replace the decisions of (EU) institutions.'

'It doesn't mean that the institutions couldn't listen,' he said.

BELGRADE, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia will step up its search for war crimes fugitives including former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic in order to sign a pre-membership agreement with the European Union this year, an official said Wednesday.

'We want to fulfill our obligations towards the (UN war crimes) tribunal as soon as possible, to sign the Stabilisation and Association agreement (SAA) with the EU,' said Rasim Ljajic, the top Serbian official in charge of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

BRUSSELS, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - Turkey must provide 'very strong signals' of reforms by November if it is to avoid a negative annual report on its progress towards EU membership, a European official said Wednesday.

After the legislative and presidential elections in July and August, 'there is a completely new and much better situation now, the landscape is clear and Turkey can now relaunch the reforms,' said Jean-Christophe Filori, a Turkey expert at the European Commission.

SARAJEVO, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - Bosnia's stability continues to be threatened by stalled reforms as Muslim, Serbs and Croats remain far apart on the future of the country 12 years after war, observers warn.

Rather than focus on police force reforms crucial to Bosnia's European integration, leaders of the three former warring ethnic groups are questioning the country's form, and some even its existence.

'The problem is that there is no agreement on what kind of country they want,' Dimitris Kourkoulas, head of the European Commission office in Bosnia, told AFP.

BRUSSELS, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union and Serbia are ready to finalize an agreement on closer ties once Belgrade fully cooperates with the UN war crimes court, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn announced Monday.

'After successful negotiations on the SAA (Stabilisation and Association Agreement), I am happy to announce we have reached a technical deal on the content and text of the agreement,' he told reporters in Brussels.

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Italy urged the European Union Monday to give Belgrade its political and economic attention immediately without waiting for a solution on the future status of Kosovo.

'We (the EU) need to act quickly and have to show Serbia immediately that we give it great political and economic attention,' Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi told a joint news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Janez Jansa.

VIANA DO CASTELO, Portugal, Sept 8, 2007 (AFP) - Turkey is determined to transform into 'a truly democratic country' and become something the EU would consider an asset to its ranks, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Saturday.

'We have a very clear intention to change things in Turkey, to make Turkish democracy a first-class democracy, make Turkey a truly democratic country where the rule of law works, where people exercise their freedoms, and where fundamental rights are respected,' Babacan said during his first foray onto the European scene since becoming foreign minister.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Aug 31, 2007 (AFP) - Bosnia's main Serb parties on Friday unanimously rejected an EU envoy's plans for key police reforms, instead offering their own proposals.

High Representative Miroslav Lajcak's police reforms were 'completely unacceptable' for Bosnian Serbs, Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told reporters after party leaders met about the issue.

Dodik's Union of Independent Social-Democrats agreed with other major parties in Bosnia's Serb entity to reject the envoy's plan and submit a draft law they hope will provide a breakthrough.

BRUSSELS, Aug 31, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union warned the leaders of Bosnia's two main Muslim parties Friday that their rejection of proposals to reform the police could undermine talks on closer EU-Bosnia ties.

'This has set back Bosnia and Hercegovina's chances of concluding a stabilisation and association agreement,' a first step toward full EU membership, EU, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn's office said.

'Bosnia and Hercegovina now risks falling farther behind its neighbours and ending up last on the road to Europe,' it said in a statement.

SARAJEVO, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - The leaders of Bosnia's two main Muslim parties on Thursday accused an international envoy of trying to cement ethnic division in the country through his proposal for police reforms.

Haris Silajdzic and Sulejman Tihic rejected the proposal put forward by High Representative Miroslav Lajcak, saying it failed to reach the European Union's stated aim of unifying Bosnia's police forces.

BRUSSELS, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission welcomed Monday French President Nicolas Sarkozy's softer line on Turkey after he pledged not to block its membership talks with the European Union.

'We welcome this contribution to the debate that is underway,' said Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj.

'The EU must respect its commitments and the accession negotiations must continue based on the negotiating framework' agreed by Turkey and European Union member countries, he said.

BLED, Slovenia, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - Enlarging the European Union to admit former Yugoslav countries will be a priority when Slovenia assumes the bloc's presidency in January, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel said Monday.

'One of our priorities will also be enlargement, not an easy task after the huge 2004 enlargement,' of 10 mainly former communist countries, Rupel said at the end of a two-day conference on EU enlargement and integration in the mountain resort of Bled.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - The international community's top envoy to Bosnia urged local leaders on Thursday to reach an agreement on police reform, a key condition set by the EU, by September.

'There will always be different opinions which are in the area of politics... but we should reach an agreement by the end of September in any case,' Miroslav Lajcak told Nezavisne Novine daily in an interview.

ANKARA, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - Turkey reaffirmed its aim Tuesday to gain full membership of the European Union, the day after France urged Ankara to pursue reforms that would give it 'privileged partnership' with the bloc.

'Turkey's objective in the case of the European Union negotiations is full and total membership,' the foreign ministry said in a statement.

'This aim was set by joint European Council decisions at Helsinki in 1999, Copenhagen in 2002 and Brussels in 2004. The negotiations are continuing with this objective in mind.'