EU seals deal to examine Serbia candidacy

Bosnia genocide suspect Ratko Mladic is back in court Thursday for a procedural hearing, a day after Goran Hadzic -- the last Yugoslav war crimes suspect at large until his arrest last month -- pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

1400 GMT: Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric says that it could take up to seven days to complete the procedure to extradite Ratko Mladic to the UN court in The Hague, my colleagues report from Belgrade.Serbia announced the arrest of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic on Thursday, ending a 16-year manhunt for the general accused of masterminding the Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst since World War II.

Serbia announced the arrest of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic on Thursday, ending a 16-year manhunt for the general accused of masterminding Europe's worst massacre since World War II.President Boris Tadic confirmed reports that the 69-year-old had been detained by Serbian security forces, saying the capture would bolster Serbia's "moral credibility in the world"."Today, early in the morning, we arrested Ratko Mladic," the president told a press conference in Belgrade.

Serbia announced the arrest of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic on Thursday, ending a 16-year manhunt for the general accused of masterminding Europe's worst massacre since World War II.President Boris Tadic confirmed reports that the 69-year-old had been detained by Serbian security forces, saying the capture would bolster Serbia's "moral credibility in the world"."Today, early in the morning, we arrested Ratko Mladic," the president told a press conference in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Serbia looks set for a crucial step forward in its bid to join the European Union on Monday despite last-minute wrangling within the EU over its failure to bring in top war crimes suspects.Serbia's bid for entry tops the agenda at talks between the 27-nation bloc's foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday, with diplomatic sources confident of an accord to usher in the country that applied for membership in December.

The European Union must keep up pressure on Serbia to track down genocide suspect Ratko Mladic by maintaining his arrest as a condition to EU entry, the UN war crimes prosecutor was quoted as saying Saturday.Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the ex-Yugoslavia war crimes court, made the appeal as Serbia's bid to join the EU appeared to gain momentum in recent weeks after the country agreed to hold talks with Kosovo.

Serbia's war crimes prosecutor warned that leaks within the investigation could be thwarting attempts to arrest Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic, a report said on Thursday."There is a danger that information might be leaking in Mladic's case. We are doing all we can to cut off these leaks. Obviously, there are no results," prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told Belgrade weekly Vreme in an interview.Vukcevic however said he could not "point a finger at anyone," but warned of similar cases in the past.