Our Yugoslav miracle, by Kostunica

The Yugoslav leader, Vojislav Kostunica, has said he's surprised that his country's image abroad has changed so quickly for the better, after the change of government in October.

He told the Tanyug news agency he'd expected the ugly picture of Yugoslavia which, he said, had been created by the western media, to last for some time.

Mr Kostunica suggested that the change in the way other countries viewed Yugoslavia showed that the media in the democratic countries was to a large extent controlled by their governments.

He was speaking after talks in Paris with President Jacques Chirac about the volatile situation on the border between southern Serbia and northern Kosovo.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service