BELGRADE (AP) - A European Union delegation resumed talks yesterday on preparing Serbia for eventual membership, after the bloc decided to give Belgrade one more month to arrest top war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic. The mostly technical, expert-level negotiations, which concern the reforms and regulations Serbia must meet before it can be considered for EU membership, are being held despite the looming threat of suspension if the Balkan country fails to extradite the Bosnian-Serb former general wanted for wartime atrocities. The current talks in Belgrade concern Serbia’s labor regulations, the free flow of goods and services, as well as political dialogue and financial cooperation in the region.

ANKARA (AP) - Turkey yesterday denied an Amnesty International report which said alleged US Central Intelligence Agency planes had made at least two stopovers at an airport in the southeast of the country while transporting terror suspects to secret prisons. In a report released yesterday, the London-based human rights group said three former detainees have lent support to the idea that Eastern European countries may have been involved in secret CIA flights to captivity. The report — which provides detailed accounts of the experiences of three Yemeni men who believe they were taken by US authorities to secret prisons following lengthy journeys through different climates and time zones — said alleged CIA planes made at least two stopovers at Turkey’s Diyarbakir airport. The Foreign Ministry promptly denied the claim. “There is no question of CIA planes landing at Diyarbakir,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan told reporters.

The president of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Branko Crvenkovski, met yesterday with top officials in Serbia-Montenegro to discuss a demarcation of the border between the Balkan neighbors and seeking to improve bilateral relations. Crvenkovski, making a three-day visit to Belgrade, met first with President Svetozar Marovic. He called for a resolution of the border issue, which also involves adjacent Kosovo, the Serbian province that has been a UN protectorate for nearly seven years. Crvenkovski said that FYROM “insists that a demarcation of the border... be completed before a final solution for Kosovo” is settled through international negotiations. (AP)