EU to resume talks with Belgrade as war crimes suspect handed over

SERBIA:Former Yugoslavia's third most-wanted war crimes suspect has been delivered to the UN court at The Hague, prompting the European Union to pledge to resume talks on closer ties with Belgrade this month.

Zdravko Tolimir, who is accused of helping to plan and execute the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, was flown from the Bosnian capital Sarajevo to The Hague yesterday, the day after being captured crossing from Serbia into Bosnia's Serb-run region.

Gen Tolimir was a close aide of Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic during the 1992-95 war and is believed to have played a major role in helping him evade capture ever since.

Serb officials said the arrest of Gen Tolimir - in a joint Bosnian and Serb operation close to Srebrenica - showed that Belgrade was determined to catch Gen Mladic and other fugitives, including wartime Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic.

Shortly after Gen Tolimir (59) arrived at The Hague on a Nato aircraft, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn gave Belgrade a conspicuous reward.

"On the basis of a very careful and extensive assessment, the [ European] Commission can resume the negotiations," Mr Rehn said after meeting Serb president Boris Tadic and German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. "I would expect that we can start these talks in early June."

The date for the resumption of talks on a so-called stabilisation and association agreement - the first step towards full membership - would be decided after the UN court's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, visits Serbia next week.

Ms del Ponte has urged Brussels not to allow Serbia to progress too far along the road to membership before the capture of men like Mladic and Karadzic, who are still heroes to many Serbs.

"Once we start the negotiations, it will take a few months to conclude them," Mr Rehn said.

"I want to underline that a necessary condition of concluding the . . . negotiations is full co-operation with the UN court, which should lead to the arrest and transfer of Ratko Mladic and other remaining indictees."

Mladic is believed to be hiding in Serbia, while Karadzic is thought to be in Bosnia's Serb- run region.