Yugoslavia: no war crimes deadlines

Yugoslavia has said there should be no set dates by which it must start handing over war crimes suspects to the United Nations tribunal in the Hague.

The foreign minister, Goran Svilatovic, said Belgrade accepted it had an obligation to co-operate with the tribunal, but deadlines were hampering its efforts.

The chief prosecutor of the tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, had earlier said she would push for punitive measures against Belgrade unless there were signs of cooperation by April -- a similar deadline has been set by Washington. Mrs Del Ponte also criticised the Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, for what she said was reluctance to hand over his predecessor, Slobodan Milosevic.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service