Kostunica: new no to Milosevic extradition

The Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, has again rejected demands for the extradition of his predecessor, Slobodan Milosevic, to the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

Speaking after a meeting with the European Union's Swedish Presidency in Stockholm, Mr Kostunica said Yugoslavia was facing challenges that were more urgent than the fate of Mr Milosevic.

These included meeting people's expectations of a better life and containing the growing unrest in southern Serbia where ethnic-Albanian rebels are fighting to have the region made part of Kosovo.

He also said that while he accepted Yugoslavia's legal obligation to work with the tribunal, questions still remained about what he called the legal basis of that cooperation.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service