BELGRADE, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Boris Tadic said that it is very important that the broadest possible consensus be reached in the parliament in the adoption of a resolution on Srebrenica, but also that the document receive the widest possible support from the non-government sector, so that the condemnation of the crime would be the decision of the whole Serbian society.

"This big step forward will be extremely important in the overall transformation of the Serbian society into a civilian society, and condemning a terrible crime which has become the global symbol for the suffering in the wars of the 1990s will also mean that the country is distancing itself from the criminals who claimed to be acting on behalf of the Serbian people. Such an act would evidently improve the reputation and credibility which Serbia enjoys in the region" and beyond, Tadic explained in an interview for the Thursday edition of the Belgrade weekly Vreme.

"There has been public discussion first on whether a resolution should or should not be adopted, and then whether the word genocide should be used. This is fruitless talk. The parliament is not a court of law in which what is primarily a moral issue is turned into a legal debate of experts. The most important thing is to condemn the vicious crime and make the terminology completely clear in the condemnation of the crime itself and the suffering of the innocent victims of another nationality," Tadic said.

Speaking of Serbia's security integration, Tadic said that the next stage of Serbia's involvement in the Partnership for Peace program should commence during the mandate of the current government, and he dismissed as ridiculous all the speculations that someone intends to make Serbia join NATO "under the table." "This government will not hold a referendum on Serbia's NATO accession, and this is the answer to all those who are bringing up the referendum issue. The fact is that no one had any intention of changing the parliament's resolution on military neutrality and that no one made any plans about Serbia joining NATO," Tadic pointed out.

Commenting on the predictions that Serbia will at some point have to face the condition to recognize Kosovo's independence in order to join the EU, Tadic pointed out that he cannot imagine such a situation. "Serbia will do everything in its power to end the conflict in the region and finally resolve the Kosovo issue before the time comes for the country's EU accession. Serbia does not want an unending conflict that would sooner or later jeopardize its national and civil interests like so many times before," Tadic said.

"The Kosovo problem requires a solution, but the solution cannot be sweeping the issue under the carpet, which is what some countries did when they recognized Kosovo by turning a blind eye to the violation of international law and telling Serbia it should accept the reality in the field. This logic, among other things, puts the international factors into the position of having to accept the reality that Kosovo Serbs do not want to recognize the sovereignty of the so-called state of Kosovo in all of its territory," Tadic said.

BUDAPEST, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said Wednesday meeting his Czech counterpart Jan Fischer that Serbia is ready to intensify its endeavors to foster all forms of cooperation with the Czech Republic, especially in the economy.

He also thanked the Czech Republic for its active support so far to the fostering of the relations between Serbia and the European Union. Serbia would particularly appreciate the Czech Republic's support to ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU and to its endeavors for getting the status of candidate for EU membership, Cvetkovic said.

Cvetkovic also conveyed to Fischer Serbia's interest in fostering economic cooperation with the Czech Republic, in increasing the volume of bilateral trade and in investments, especially in the sectors of energy, transport infrastructure and environment protection. He thanked the Czech Republic for its development aid and for its readiness to include Serbia's priority projects in environment protection in its development aid program for 2010-2012.

Cvetkovic also conferred on the sidelines of the Energy Security Summit underway in Budapest with the Prime Ministers of Hungary and of Romania Gordon Bajnai and Emil Boc respectively.

BUDAPEST, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - During his today's meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic stated that Serbia would appreciate it very much if Hungary would start the procedure of ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) soon and support Serbia in obtaining the status of an European Union candidate state.

Underscoring that the relations between the two countries are developing continuously, Cvetkovic informed his counterpart that Serbia is ready to work together with Hungary on developing all forms of cooperation, particularly economic. Cvetkovic met with Bajnai on the sidelines of the summit on energy security which gathered prime ministered of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. It was concluded at the meeting of the two ministers that communication, energy supply, agriculture, environmental protection, tourism, cooperation between small and medium-size enterprises, as well as regional and cross-border cooperation, are important areas of cooperation between Serbia and Hungary.

Premier Cvetkovic welcomed the initiative of the Hungarian side to hold a joint session of the two governments. He underscored that minorities are and "important bridge" of cooperation between the two states, adding that Serbia will continue to give its full contribution to the promotion of the status of the Hungarian minority.

BUDAPEST, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - The investments in energy infrastructure are investments in future development of the regional countries which have to catch up with advanced economies on their EU path and secure higher level of stability and living standard for their citizens, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic stated on Wednesday.

Cvetkovic underscored at the Energy Security Summit in Budapest which gathered countries of the Central, Southern and Southeastern Europe that the region represents an important energy knot and a transitional part for energetic supply from Russia and Central Asia. "Therefore, we have to put in joint efforts so as to realize the planned transitional projects in the shortest possible term, which will secure Europe's stable energy supply and diversification of energy sources, routes and markets," Cvetkovic said.

He underscored that Serbia's priority is realization of the South Stream gas pipeline that should provide considerable amounts of natural gas for the European market. "The investments in the annual reconstruction of the energy capacities equal about billion euros, and I expect that the amount will increase in the following five years," Cvetkovic said.

He recalled that Serbia has also launched important investments in new electricity generation capacities that include construction of two lignite-fired power plants and one gas power plant of the total capacity of 1,750 MW which represents 20 percent of the total generation capacity of Serbia. "At the same time, we put in maximum efforts to promote generation of electricity from renewable sources. As a result, we have launched activities on usage of the remaining hydro potential, particularly of the Drina River, which is assessed to have capacity close to 1,000 MW with middle annual production of about 3,800 GWh" Cvetkovic said.

BELGRADE, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - The economic cooperation between Serbia and Egypt needs to be improved, and there is a great potential for increasing the scope of foreign trade exchange, the participants of a business forum Serbia-Egypt, held at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS), evaluated on Monday.

The Egyptian delegation was headed by Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid, and the aim of their visit was to familiarize themselves with the business ambient in Serbia. It was evaluated that this is the most important delegation of Egyptian businessmen that has ever visited Serbia.

Taking part in the work of the Forum, Serbian Minister of Trade and Services Slobodan Milosavljevic said that not only business leaders from Egypt are in Serbia, but also business leaders of the Middle East and Africa, who need to be present at the region of Southeastern Europe in order to become global leaders. "They have to be present in Serbia as well, since it is the biggest and most perspective country of the region," Milosavljevic pointed out and invited them to intensify their business in the Balkans as well.

Rashid stressed that the goal of the visit of Egyptian economists to Serbia, which followed the visit of Serbian economists headed by President of Serbia Boris Tadic to Egypt in April 2009, is to search the possibilities for investment in the country, since there is a great interest in it, as well as in the improvement of the economic cooperation of the two countries.

BELGRADE, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - During a Wednesday discussion with the Egyptian delegation of big industrialists headed by Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid, Serbian President Boris Tadic invited the representatives of Egyptian industry to take part in the economic flows of Serbia.

President Tadic, as stated by his press service, stressed that Serbia and Egypt are have been connected by a traditional friendship ever since the Non-Aligned Movement was founded. The members of the Egyptian delegation expressed satisfaction with the Wednesday talks with Serbian economists at the business forum which was organized by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

The delegation from Egypt, which came to a two-day visit to Serbia upon the invitation of President Tadic, comprised representatives of a great number of companies, and this was the first visit of big Egyptian businessmen to Serbia, whose aim is to examine the investment potentials in the country.

BUDAPEST, Feb 25 (Tanjug) - Serbia wants to take an active and equal part in the European Union project for the Danube basin, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said in Budapest today.

At the international conference and the Danube strategy organized by the European Commission and Hungarian government, which started today, Djelic pointed out the great importance of the Danube River as a river that links and provides possibilities for an accelerated economic development of the region as a whole. Djelic urged for promotion of the navigation system on the Danube, aimed at increasing safety, having closer cooperation among neighbors along its banks and called on the participants to come to the Exit Festival in Novi Sad this summer and to a new conference on the Danube, planned to be held in Belgrade in autumn.

The European Union already has a strategy for the macroeconomic development of the Baltic Sea, and it is now the Danube Basin's turn, while Spain has recently launched an initiative to draw up a strategy for the development of the Mediterranean.

BELGRADE, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - German Ambassador to Serbia Wolfram Maas said Wednesday that Serbia is getting closer to the European Union every day and that cooperation between Serbia and Germany can be fostered in the energy, telecommunications and infrastructure sectors.

In an interview to the Economic magazine, Maas said he did not wish to speculate on the dates when Serbia will get the status of candidate or gain EU membership, as this depends on the speed of reforms in the country. Maas said that when he came to Serbia, the country was making slow progress, but that reforms were accelerated in the meantime. The distance from the EU is being reduced and Serbia is getting closer to the EU every day, he said. Serbia's political course has become much clearer and no one doubts any more that EU membership is the priority of its government, he said. The government, parliament and state administration have made great steps to that end in the past year and a half, Maas noted.

Referring to economic cooperation between Serbia and Germany, Maas said that Germany is Serbia's leading trade partner. Cooperation can, however, always be improved, he added. An attractive market is very important for investors, as any of them who wish to come to Serbia will want not only to sell their products in this country, but also to export them, Maas said.

Germany's bilateral support to Serbia reached a record level in 2009, he said. This proves that even in a difficult economic situation, Germany continues to support Serbia and carries its support further, he said.

BELGRADE, Feb 25 (Tanjug) - Indian Ambassador to Serbia Nengcha Lhouvum Mukhopadhyaya stated late on Wednesday that Serbia and India have traditionally good relations, but that there is a lot more to be done to further promote the cooperation between the two countries.

I know I will have a lot of work, because although we have historically good relations, we have to develop even better cooperation, Ambassador Mukhopadhyaya told Tanjug at a reception held at the Indian ambassador's residence in Belgrade on the occasion of her assuming the new duties. Mukhopadhyaya said that she will work on promotion of political and economic cooperation of the two states, as well as of the relations in the area of cultural, academic and scientific areas.

The governments in Belgrade and New Delhi have already signed a series of agreements in the above sectors, which need to be developed further, said the ambassador of India, who officially handed the letter of her accreditation to President Boris Tadic on January 28.

BELGRADE, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - Minister without portfolio Sulejman Ugljanin today opened a two-day Serbia-Turkey Business Forum and called on Turkish businessmen to invest in Serbia. He expressed expectations that Turkish investors will invest in 42 underdeveloped municipalities in Serbia, underscoring that he would, in the capacity of the president of the Mixed Committee for Economic Cooperation of Serbia and Turkey, do everything to expand the cooperation to the rest of Serbia.

The Turkish delegation includes representatives of 30 major companies in the area of construction, furniture and food industry. They underscored at the opening of the Forum that the economic cooperation between Serbia and Turkey is insufficiently developed and that advantage should be taken of the Free Trade Agreement between Serbia and Turkey.

BELGRADE, Feb 24 (Tanjug) -This year the transactions in world tourism market are expected to rise by three to four percent, Executive Director of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) Zoltan Somogyi said at the 32nd International Tourism Fair in Belgrade on Wednesday.

He also expressed opinion that Serbia could make bigger profit in 2010.The WTO's executive director told Tanjug that last year there were 880 million tourist arrivals, whereby the profit made was USD one billion, which is four percent less than in 2008. Last year, tourism was facing problems in the world market, but not in Serbia, as the country showed it could do a very good job, having hosted more foreign tourists and making bigger profit, Somogyi said. He reiterated that Serbia has won a rural tourism development project to the amount of USD four million, funded by the Spanish government via EU institutions.

Somogyi said a meeting was held in Belgrade on Tuesday, to start drafting a business plan for rural tourism development in Serbia, which should be finished by the end of this year. He stressed that Serbia is a very important member of WTO and that, as of November 2009, the country has also been WTO's Executive Council member.

PODGORICA, Feb 25 (Tanjug) - Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic dismissed on Thursday Belgrade's accusations that Montenegro is not cooperating enough in the fight against organized crime, and said that he will put more stock in those messages if Serbia stops granting citizenships to people who have been charged with war crimes or convicted of serious criminal acts in Montenegro.

"We will believe Belgrade's calls to fight organized crime more if Serbia discontinues its current practice of granting citizenships to people who have been convicted to 20 years in prison for the most serious crimes," Djukanovic told Podgorica based television IN. Djukanovic said that this is a case of "political abuse" and reiterated that Serbia is trying to hold the issue over Montenegro's head with a single political goal - stopping the country on its dynamic path towards European and Euro-Atlantic goals.

The media in Podgorica are reporting that over the last two years five people suspected of war crimes against civilians - Bosko Bojovic, Milisav Markovic, Radoje Radunovic, Dusko Bakrac and Milorad Ivanovic - and two people convicted of murder - Veselin Vukotic and Zarko Lausevic - saved themselves of trials or jail time by getting Serbian citizenship overnight, and pointing out that Serbia has not officially commented on the issue.

PODGORICA, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - Montenegrin Foreign Minister Milan Rocen welcomed Wednesday the return of Serbian Ambassador Zoran Lutovac to his post in Podgorica. As the Podgorica media reported, Rocen said that Belgrade officially informed his ministry on Monday that Lutovac returned to his post of ambassador to Podgorica.

"I can say that he is welcome, and as far as we are concerned, he need not have left at the first place," Rocen said, and added that the invitations for consultations are a constituent of a diplomat's work. Serbian Foreign Ministry recalled Lutovac from Montenegro for consultations after the Montenegrin government made a decision to establish diplomatic relations with Kosovo in mid January.

VIENNA, Feb 25 (Tanjug) - Serbian Ambassador to Austria Milovan Bozinovic has underscored in Vienna that Serbia is ready for true talks on Kosovo and Metohija and that one should not think that the process of solving the issue ended with the previous talks.

In his presentation on "Serbia in regional and European context - Prospects and challenges" at the Diplomatic Academy, introducing himself to the Austrian public, Bozinovic underscored that Belgrade believes that the talks held with the mediation of Martti Ahtisaari should not be accepted as completed, or final, because they were bad. The talks, he said, did not result in a solution, because talks must not end with an absolute victory of one side and a defeat of the other, but a compromise needs to be reached. "Fresh talks should not be a taboo topic. A solution can be found and I wonder why we should not talk further, particularly when one side, Serbia, announces flexibility," said Bozinovic.

PRISTINA, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - Italian Ambassador to Pristina and EU envoy for northern Kosovo, Michael Giffoni, has reiterated that the strategy the interim Kosovo government and the International Civilian Office (ICO) have drafted for the northern part of the province is not a document of Brussels and that, therefore, it cannot have the support of the European Union, the papers in Pristina reported on Wednesday.

However, in practice, we are ready to cooperate in respect of the possible elements of the document that have to do with EU's joint approach towards northern Kosovo, Giffoni said at a debate that was staged in Pristina on Tuesday, and explained that EU's intensified presence in northern Kosovo is in the interest of not only the strategy, but also of the Union itself and its policy.

Addressing the participants of the debate on the implementation of the strategy for northern Kosovo, which was organized by the Foreign Policy Club, the representatives of the civic society in Kosovo qualified the drafting of the strategy for northern Kosovo as "positive," but expressed doubts about its realization in practice.

The International Civilian Representative Pieter Feith assessed on the occasion that the legal opinion the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will present on the legality of Kosovo's proclamation of independence will change things for the better, including the issue of the strategy. We are waiting for the ICJ to define its position on Kosovo, as this will be the stance the international community will put forward in respect of Kosovo, and we truly hope that it will clarify the situation, Feith said. The Court will not present a position that will fully back Pristina, but we do not expect that it will completely back the position of Belgrade either, Feith added, evaluating that once the decision has been reached, Serbia will be more cooperative.

BELGRADE/BALI, Feb 25 (Tanjug) - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during his meeting in Bali with Serbia's Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic that respect for international law is the basis of Indonesian foreign policy, reiterating that his country will not recognize Kosovo's illegal independence.

"As the muslim country with the largest population, Indonesia has a strong influence among other Asian and African countries and its backing in the efforts to find a compromise solution for Kosovo's status is great support for Serbia's policy," said Dulic, who thanked the Indonesian president for his country's stand on Kosovo, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning announced Thursday.

Dulic is visiting Indonesia as Chairman of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Ministerial Forum, which comprises 140 environment ministers from around the world. Dulic and Yudhoyono discussed the work of the UNEP Global Ministerial Forum, whose meeting in Bali will end on Friday, and the possibility of coming up with a joint declaration, which would be a balanced political document directed towards worldwide environment protection. Serbia took over the two-year position of UNEP's presiding country in 2009.

PRISTINA, Feb 24 (Tanjug) - Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Taci appointed Wednesday Ilber Hisa coordinator for implementation of northern Kosovo strategy, Kosovo government said in a release. The appointment is part of the Kosovo government endeavors for restoring law and order in the north of the country, the release says.

Hisa will be in charge of coordinating all government activities and of cooperation with relevant international mechanisms in the implementation of northern Kosovo strategy, the release says. Hisa is an official of the ORA party, which joined the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo two days ago, and was a member of the Kosovo Albanian delegation to the failed negotiations with Serbia in Vienna on Kosovo status.