SKOPJE (AFP) - The new European Union peacekeeping force in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) will be able to leave in six months because the former Yugoslav republic is well on its way back to normal, Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski told AFP. The 350-strong force known as EUFOR would be able to pack its kitbags before the end of the year because of the tremendous progress made in getting FYROM’s police force up and running, he said. “EUFOR has a six-month mandate,” Crvenkovski told AFP. If EUFOR did have to renew its mandate when it expires in October, “that will mean that stabilization in the country is not happening the way it should.”

ZAGREB (AFP) - A legal stalemate between Croatia and the UN war crimes court over the country’s indicted wartime army chief continued yesterday when a local court said it could not serve him with an indictment for war crimes committed during the 1990s war due to his poor health. Retired general Janko Bobetko cannot be served with the indictment “due to his bad and worsening health condition,” the county court in Zagreb, in charge of the procedure, said in a statement.

Serbian police have rounded up 7,000 suspects in a crackdown on organized crime in the aftermath of the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on March 12, a top police official said yesterday. Sreten Lukic, head of the police’s public security sector, did not specify how many of the suspects remained in custody or how many would face legal proceedings, B-92 radio reported. “No one will be spared,” Lukic said, describing the police action as “the biggest in Europe.” (AP)

Turkey and Romania said yesterday they were unanimous the two countries should be economically and politically involved in the restructuring of Iraq after the ongoing US-led invasion. “We agreed that we should have a role in the future of Iraq along with the coalition forces,” Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana told a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, following bilateral talks. He also praised Turkey as a “matchless example of a Muslim country with democratic institutions in place.” (AFP)

NATO-led peacekeepers yesterday completed an operation in which they set up checkpoints around Pale, former stronghold of the top fugitive war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. Dale MacEachern, a spokesman for the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Sarajevo, declined to disclose the nature of the action, begun Thursday, or give further details. It was the second such operation in Pale within less than a week. (AFP)

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) became the World Trade Organization’s 146th member yesterday, nearly a decade after launching negotiations to join the global trade body. FYROM is the third country from the ex-Yugoslavia to join the WTO, following Slovenia and Croatia. (AFP)