Serbian party quits over Mladic

Mladic (centre) was the Bosnian Serbs' main military commander

A key party in Serbia's governing coalition G17 Plus has quit in protest at the failure to capture the fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.

Leader Mladjan Dinkic said the party's ministers had submitted letters of resignation to the prime minister.

He said the party was disappointed Serbia had failed to meet EU conditions on restarting talks on closer ties by failing to hand over Gen Mladic.

Gen Mladic is wanted by The Hague war crimes tribunal on genocide charges.

The charges relate to the massacre of thousands of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Bosnian war.

The EU suspended talks with Serbia earlier this year over Belgrade's failure to capture the Bosnian Serb general.

G17 Plus had said it would resign from the government if Gen Mladic was not been handed over by 1 October.

The move is not expected to lead to a collapse of the government, as it is to hold early general elections after parliament on Saturday approved a new constitution claiming sovereignty over the UN-administered province of Kosovo.