BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union yesterday threatened to postpone the launch of membership talks with Croatia from March, saying the former Yugoslav republic was not doing enough to hand over a fugitive war crimes suspect. EU leaders have decided to start entry negotiations with the Balkan nation of 4.4 million on March 17 if its government cooperates fully with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on arresting ex-general Ante Gotovina. «It is a warning shot as we come to the start date of the negotiations,» said Martin Blum, emerging markets analyst at Austria-Creditanstalt.

SARAJEVO (AFP) - The wives of six Muslim men arrested in Bosnia and imprisoned by the US military in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, protested here yesterday to demand the release of their spouses. More than 100 people joined the protest in front of government headquarters. The six men were detained in Bosnia in 2001 on suspicion of having links to international terrorism.

The Albanian army has started distributing food to many areas in the north and east of the country that have been isolated by snow and icy weather, the Defense Ministry said yesterday. Some 50 army trucks have been carrying 600 tons of food aid to the districts of Shkodra, Kukes, Lezha and Dibra since Sunday after many roads were blocked, trapping thousands of people following about 2 meters (about 7 feet) of snow in the past week. (AP)

UN war crimes judges yesterday sentenced a 71-year-old Yugoslav general to eight years in prison for failing to punish subordinates who carried out a deadly 1991 shelling of the Croatian town of Dubrovnik. However, Gen. Pavle Strugar was acquitted of the more serious allegations of murder and giving the order to carry out the Dec. 6 attack during the 1991-95 war in Croatia. Two civilians were killed and much of medieval Dubrovnik's protected «Old City» was destroyed in the shelling. (AP)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday pledged to support Romania's efforts to join the EU, but told the country's president he must continue the fight against corruption. Romania is due to become an EU member in 2007, and the issue was high on the agenda in talks between Blair and Romania's new president, reformist Traian Basescu. (AP)