EU Welcomes Serbia War Crimes Action Plan, Awaits Results

"The action plan provides a very good basis for our further work and cooperation," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told reporters after the plan was unveiled in Brussels by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. Finland currently holds the EU presidency.

"The plan needs to be developed further and the implemention of the action must begin immediately," Tuomioja added.

Economically hobbled by the wars that tore the former Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, Serbia is desperate to keep alive its hopes of one day joining Europe's rich 25-member club.

But the EU froze talks on closer ties with Serbia in May, because of the failure of authorities to hand Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief, to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Serbia is hoping to agree a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU -- typically the first step for Balkan states to join the bloc.

EU wants results

While the EU is aware that the prospect of membership for Serbia is a powerful force for stability in a volatile region, union officials have vowed that they should only resume when there are results, not just action plans.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who has supervised the SAA talks with Belgrade, expressed satisfaction that the plan could lead to Mladic's arrest.

"I am glad to see that the action plan contains an unequivocal commitment from the Serbian government to arrest Ratko Mladic and other remaining indictees," he told reporters. "A plan can be a means to an end but action is more important than the plan because it realizes the results that matter."

The three-page plan includes a media campaign highlighting the Mladic case, security and legal elements, ways to improve cooperation with ICTY, and evokes the need to amend some specific laws.

Mladic and the former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadic, who is also wanted for trial, have been on the run since the war in Bosnia ended in 1995. The fugitive general is being sought for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, notably for his role in the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim boys and men in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica in July that year. Mladic is believed to have been hiding in Serbia, but Belgrade has denied knowing of his whereabouts and claims that it has a strong political will to arrest him once it tracks him down.

"We think this plan is something that will enable Serbia to continue the negotiations (on the SAA)," said Kostunica, who explained that his government would now prepare a "detailed operational plan."

Some skepticism

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he thought it could be "possible" for the talks to resume by the end of the year.

However some in the European Union are not convinced.

Asked before seeing the plan whether it could lead Mladic's capture, Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said: "We will see, they have said it so often. I have been there on various occasions and each time they say in a week or in 14 days they will catch Mladic. I'm still waiting."