Croatian President Stipe Mesic warned Serbia on Wednesday it would be making a mistake if it filed a complaint against his country for alleged ethnic cleansing during the 1991-1995 war.

`It is a mistake,` Mesic told national television, referring to an announcement made Tuesday by Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.

Some 5,000 Kosovars took to the streets on Wednesday amid mounting tensions about an agreed UN-Serbia plan to deploy a European mission in the disputed Balkan territory.

`UN Proposes War,` read one of the large white banners brandished by the demonstrators in downtown Pristina, reflecting Kosovo Albanians` anger about intentions to implement the plan within weeks.

Croatia and Serbia have reopened old wounds by trading accusations of war crimes before the world court that mark the worst point in their ties since Slobodan Milosevic`s ouster, analysts said Wednesday.

Croatia and Serbia have reopened old wounds by trading accusations of war crimes before the world court that mark the worst point in their ties since Slobodan Milosevic`s ouster, analysts said Wednesday.

UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz arrived in Belgrade Sunday to meet with Serb officials amid pressure for Serbia to arrest two fugitives, local news agency Tanjug reported.

Brammetz will meet Monday with Rasim Llajic, the Serb minister in charge of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

BELGRADE, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - Belgrade said Monday it has begun investigating two former Serb paramilitaries suspected of murdering elderly civilians in Croatia during its war of independence.

Serbia's war crimes prosecution launched the probe after it received evidence that the suspects had shot dead six civilians in the central Croatian village of Banski Kovacevac in March 1992.

VIENNA, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - The troika of European, Russian and US negotiators began new talks with delegates from Pristina and Belgrade Monday in Vienna to determine the future status of the Serbian province of Kosovo.

European Union mediator Wolfgang Ischinger and his US and Russian counterparts, Frank Wisner and Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, met Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku at the Austrian foreign ministry.

They were then to hold talks with the Serbian delegation led by Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic at 11:00 am (0900 GMT).

TETOVO, Macedonia, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Some 6,000 ethnic Albanians demonstrated in the Macedonian town of Tetovo on Friday to demand the independence of the neighbouring Serbian province of Kosovo.

'We are gathered here today to express our discontent with postponing the independence of Kosovo,' said Menduh Thaci, a leader of Macedonia's Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA).

'We are against all attempts aimed at destabilising and dividing Kosovo,' Thaci told protestors who carried Albanian and US flags.

PRISTINA, Serbia, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Kosovo's negotiating team in talks on the future status of the disputed Serbian territory said Friday that the dialogue will end after a December deadline.

'The negotiations will be over on December 10,' said Skender Hyseni, spokesman for the Kosovo Albanian 'Team of Unity' involved in the internationally mediated talks.

'The Team of Unity is resolute that there will be no talks after December 10,' said Hyseni.

BELGRADE, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Four former members of an elite Serbian police unit were arrested over the 1999 massacre of 14 Kosovo Albanians, including women and children, authorities said Friday.

'The four were arrested over the massacre in Podujevo,' police spokeswoman Dragana Kajganic told AFP. Podujeov is the northern Kosovo town in which the atrocity occurred on March 28, 1999.

The four suspects were all members of the notorious 'Scorpions' special police unit.

PRISTINA, Serbia, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A Kosovo Albanian went on trial here Thursday over a 2001 bus bombing that killed 10 Serbs in one of the deadliest attacks since the province's 1998-1999 war, a rights group said.

Florim Ejupi pleaded not guilty before the UN court to charges including terrorism and murder, said the Humanitarian Law Centre.

The 29-year-old is the main suspect in the attack and is accused of helping to plant the bomb which blew up a NATO-escorted bus full of ethnic Serbs.

BELGRADE, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - An ethnic Albanian accused of taking part in the murder nine years ago of eight Serbs whose bodies were found in a Kosovo cave went on trial here Wednesday, Beta news agency reported.

Sinan Morina pleaded not guilty before Serbia's special war crimes court to the charges related to the killings, which took place in the northwestern Kosovo village of Opterusa in July 1998.

He is also accused of detaining, torturing and raping Serb civilians, as well as destroying property and religious sites, according to the indictment.

BRUSSELS, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Serbian authorities have received 'tips' about former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic but have made no breakthrough in their search for him, a Serbian minister said Wednesday.

'There have been tips, information, but no result yet,' said Rasim Ljajic, the minister charged with cooperation with the UN war crimes court.

MADRID, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Two Spanish members of the NATO-led mission in Kosovo were killed when their vehicle overturned and crashed into a petrol station, Spain's defence ministry said Wednesday.

The cause of the incident late Tuesday had 'yet to be determined,' the ministry said in a statement.

The vehicle reached a crossroads near the soldiers' base when it flipped over and skidded into the petrol station.

MOSCOW, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Russia's ambassador to the European Union on Wednesday said a December 10 deadline did not signal the end for talks over the future status of Kosovo and pointed to progress in negotiations.

'December 10 is not the end of the negotiating process.... We don't think December 10 is a watershed, it's just a stage,' Vladimir Chizhov said through a video link-up at a Moscow press conference.

'We understand there has been some progress. There were directs talks between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians' in Brussels on Sunday, Chizhov said.

LUXEMBOURG, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal has improved but 'is still too slow', the court's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Monday.

'I confirm that the situation today is better than it was a year ago,' Del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), told EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg.

'However, cooperation is still too slow and not yet sufficient,' she said.

BRUSSELS, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Serbian and Kosovo officials refused to budge from their positions Sunday at a last ditch series of talks on the province's future status, agreeing only to meet again in a week.

Despite a fast-approacing December 10 deadline for the talks to end, Serbia laid out its plan for autonomy for the ethnic Albanian majority region, while Kosovo officials explained their vision of two independent states.

BRUSSELS, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia and Kosovo remained in a stalemate Sunday over the future status of the province at the end of the second round of face-to-face talks in Brussels, according to a statement released after the meeting.

The only point of agreement between the two sides was to reconvene talks in Vienna on October 22.

BELGRADE, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Kosovo will never be an independent state, no matter of what kind of pressure Serbia is exposed to, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Sunday ahead of talks on the UN-administered province.

'Kosovo will never be independent state, no matter pressures, conditionings and threats Serbia is exposed to,' said Kostunica, Beta news agency reported.

BELGRADE, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Serbian police said Sunday they had arrested a German man trying to smuggle nine people into Croatia, Beta news agency reported.

'During a control procedure at the border crossing Batrovci, the 51-year-old tried illegally to cross from Serbia to Croatia, driving nine Serbian citizens, including five minors,' police said in a statement.

A magistrate ordered one-month detention for the suspect, it added.

Along with other Balkans countries, Serbia is a key crossroad for human trafficking towards the European Union.

BRUSSELS, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union's Kovovo envoy urged Belgrade and Pristina Sunday to accelerate their talks on the future status of the Serbian province, with a December 10 deadline closing in.

'There is quite a distance to be covered if really we want to reach an agreement,' warned EU envoy Wolfgang Ischinger, ahead of a round of talks in Brussels on how much autonomy Kosovo should be granted.

SPLIT, Croatia, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - If Belgrade and Pristina reach no deal over Kosovo's status a plan proposed by a UN envoy remains the best solution for the breakaway Serbian province, a US official said here Saturday.

'If we cannot reach an agreement we continue to believe that the Ahtisaari plan is the best,' solution for Kosovo, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Rosemary DiCarlo, told journalists.

UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari has called for independence of the Albanian-majority province under international supervision.

BELGRADE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia has begun returning to Croatia a herd of Lipizzaner show horses that were taken from the neighbouring country during its war in 1991, officials said Friday.

The first truck carrying the horses has already left a farm near Serbia's second city of Novi Sad, north of the capital Belgrade, said Serbia's veterinary inspector Sanja Celebicanin.

BRUSSELS, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission could initial a key agreement on closer EU ties with Serbia if Belgrade boosts cooperation with the UN War Crimes court, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Friday.

The Commission and Serbia concluded on September 10 the technical aspects of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) -- a first step for Balkans states to join the EU -- but Brussels refuses to sign it.

BELGRADE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia has put a one million-euro (1.4 million-dollar) bounty on the head of Ratko Mladic, the government said Friday, just days before Brussels receives a report on its war crimes cooperation.

The decision to offer the reward for information leading to Mladic's arrest was aimed at showing Belgrade's willingness to cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal, Rasim Ljajic, the minister in charge of the issue, told Beta news agency.

BELGRADE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia has put up a reward of one million euros (1.4 million dollars) for information leading to the capture of Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic, Beta news agency reported Friday.

The decision was made by Serbia's National Security Council and was aimed at showing Belgrade's willingness to cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal, Beta said, citing Rasim Ljajic, the minister in charge of the cooperation.

BELGRADE, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Serbia ordered its officials to protest and even leave international gatherings if ethnic Albanian delegations from its breakaway Kosovo province were given status as representing an independent state, the government said Thursday.

The government instructed its officials to 'protest and react' whenever ethnic Albanian politicians taking part in international gatherings alone or within the delegation of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) were given a 'state status,' a statement said.

THE HAGUE, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Relatives of Croat victims of the 1992 Vukovar massacre protested Thursday outside the UN court in The Hague against the leniency of sentences handed out to three men convicted for their roles in the killings.

Around 100 relatives, who flew in from Croatia earlier Thursday, lit candles and prayed as they stood in a circle holding up pictures of the 264 people killed during the massacre.

PRISTINA, Serbia, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Fears are growing ahead of weekend talks on Kosovo's future status that the tortuous negotiations are going nowhere, threatening to radicalise the tiny Balkan territory's separatist ethnic Albanian majority.

Since the last round of internationally mediated talks on the issue two weeks ago, a series of incidents in Kosovo have stoked concerns of a return to violence in the United Nations-run Serbian province, which has proved a powderkeg in the past.

PRISTINA, Serbia, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - Some 300 Kosovo Albanian youths staged a peaceful rally Wednesday to demand independence for the disputed Serbian territory.

The group of students marched through the centre of the provincial capital Pristina chanting 'Independence' as they waved flags of neighbouring Albania and banners that warned about Kosovo becoming another 'Palestine.'

LONDON, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Kosovo will declare its independence from Serbia within days following a December deadline on the province's future status if no accord is struck, its Prime Minister Agim Ceku said Tuesday.

'An independent Kosovo has to happen very soon after December 10,' he told a news conference at the Foreign Office in London after meeting British diplomats, including Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

'We are talking a couple of days, not weeks, not months.'

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Russia warned anew Tuesday that a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo was 'unacceptable' and said direct talks between Serbia and Albanian separatists could be extended beyond the December 10 deadline.

Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin made the comments to reporters after UN special representative Joachim Rucker briefed the Security Council on the latest developments in the breakaway Serbian province.

LONDON, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Kosovo will declare its independence from Serbia within days if no accord is struck by a December deadline on the province's future status, its Prime Minister Agim Ceku said Tuesday.

'An independent Kosovo has to happen very soon after December 10,' he told a news conference at the Foreign Office in London after meeting British diplomats, including Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

'We are talking a couple of days, not weeks, not months.'

THE HAGUE, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte will present her latest evaluation of Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal to the European Union on Monday, her spokeswoman said.

'At the invitation of the Portuguese EU presidency the prosecutor will present her evaluation of Serbia's cooperation' at a meeting of the EU's foreign ministers, spokeswoman Olga Kavran said Tuesday.

Ahead of the meeting Del Ponte will meet with EU Enlargement Commissioner Oli Rehn, who is in The Hague for meetings Thursday.

BELGRADE, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - A Serbian court has sentenced a man to 31 years in prison for a deadly bomb attack in the country's increasingly tense Muslim south, Beta news agency reported Tuesday.

The court in the town of Novi Pazar found Fahrudin Gusinac guilty of 'throwing a hand grenade at the family house of Mahmut Hajrovic, aiming to kill its members,' judge Camil Hubic was cited as saying.

BELGRADE, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller is to meet here Tuesday with top Serbian leaders for talks expected to put the Russian behemoth in pole position for key energy sector privatisations.

Miller is to hold discussions with Serbian President Boris Tadic, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his deputy, Bozidar Djelic, who are expected to push for commitments by the Russians to invest in a gas pipeline.