By Daisy Ayliffe - 28th February 2006
The EU has warned Serbia it will freeze entry talks if war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic is not delivered within a month.
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said that talks scheduled for April could be postponed if Mladic was not handed over for trial at the UN war crimes tribunal.
"It is high time Serbia reached full cooperation with ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) that should lead to the arrest and transfer of Ratko Mladic," Rehn told a news conference on Monday.
Serbia and Montenegro is negotiating an EU association agreement - widely seen as a step towards full membership.
But in a bid to offer encouragement to Serbia, Rehn added that he believed negotiations could be concluded this year.
“It would be most regrettable if Serbia could not reach this goal because of the obstacle of co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal,” he said.
British foreign minister Jack Straw said the EU had to get tough with Belgrade, just as it did with Croatia last year, to hand over indicted war criminals.
"If Serbia continues to fail to cooperate, then it risks a total suspension of the talks," he said.
Last week the media reported that authorities were closing in on Mladic, but he still remains at large.
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