The EU on Monday welcomed a Serbian plan for arresting former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic on war crimes charges, but warned Belgrade that a re-start of halted talks on closer ties with the bloc required quick action.
"The plan provides a very good basis for future co-operation with the EU, but it has to be implemented immediately," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told reporters after a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
Finland currently chairs the rotating EU presidency.
EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn said that the plan would lead to an enhanced dialogue between the 25-member bloc and Serbia.
However, Belgrade must fully cooperate with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague before the EU will resume frozen talks on closer relations with Serbia, Rehn said.
Such cooperation must lead to the transfer of Mladic and other Serbian war crimes suspects to The Hague, he said.
"The plan contains the means to an end, but ... action remains more important, and results count more than a plan," Rehn said.
He added that the EU was ready to re-start negotiations on a stabilization and association agreement [SAA] with Serbia "on the very day that full-cooperation [with The Hague] is achieved."
Together with The Hague tribunal, the EU would help Serbia draw up details of the plan, Rehn said.
"We want Serbia to make progress towards the EU, and we want Serbia to realize its EU perspective," he added.
EU-Serbia talks will now focus on easing Serbians' trips into the bloc and on creating a regional free trade agreement, Rehn said.
Kostunica said the plan would make Belgrade more efficient in its efforts to snatch Mladic, adding: "It will lead us sooner or later to resume SAA talks with the EU."
Belgrade's proposal included restructuring the security forces and a public awareness campaign on cooperation with The Hague, Kostunica said.
EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana said that the Serbian blueprint was similar to a six-point plan drawn up by Croatia last year to apprehend war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina.
"I am pretty sure that it's going to be a very successful document," Solana said.
The EU has no reason to doubt Serbia's political will to hand Mladic in at The Hague, Kostunica said.
"We have transferred some 16 war crimes suspects to the tribunal in less than one year, that shows our determination," he added.
In May the EU suspended talks with Belgrade on a stabilization and association pact -- seen as a first step toward membership -- over the failure to arrest Mladic and other war crimes suspects and deliver them to the tribunal.
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