BELGRADE (AP) - Serbia yesterday welcomed the EU’s decision to open talks on a cooperation agreement to prepare the Balkan nation for membership talks and promised to capture war crimes suspects, a key precondition for the eventual entry. The EU’s foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, granted the mandate after they agreed that Serbia-Montenegro was ready to open talks on the Stabilization and Association Agreement. They said, however, that Serbia’s hopes of joining the 25-member bloc depend on the extradition of all war crimes suspects.

TIRANA (AFP) - Albania said yesterday that “conditional independence” was the only solution to guarantee Kosovo’s stability and that talks on its final status should begin by year-end. “Conditional independence could make it possible for the international community to specify how long it will need to stay in Kosovo to oversee the implementation of democratic standards,” said Albanian Foreign Minister Besnik Mustafaj.

A former Serbian justice minister who was detained last week for two days filed a lawsuit yesterday against his successor for allegedly ordering the arrest without cause. Vladan Batic filed the lawsuit at the municipal prosecutor’s office, alleging that Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic abused his position and overstepped his authority by allegedly ordering the detention. Batic accused Stojkovic of putting pressure on the special prosecutor for organized crime to launch an investigation. (AP)

An explosion on a gas pipeline from Iran to Turkey yesterday has halted the flow of gas, said a statement from Turkey’s state Botas pipeline company. Officials said the blast was probably caused by a leak in the gas pipeline. It was not clear where the blast occurred or if there were any casualties. (Reuters)

Four Albanian children suffering from a genetic blood disease tested positive for HIV after receiving blood transfusions from seven donors infected with the virus that causes AIDS, health officials reported yesterday. Four Albanian blood donors this year and three in 2004 have tested positive for HIV, and could have been the source of infection among the four children with thalassemia, who receive transfusions once every three weeks, according to Irena Qendro, head of the blood donation department. (AP)