ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay an official visit to Iran on July 28-29, his press office said yesterday. The statement gave no details on the visit, which is expected to focus on bilateral ties as well as regional issues, such as war-torn neighboring Iraq. Iran and Turkey have both stressed on several occasions the need to preserve the territorial integrity of their neighbor Iraq, fearing any moves by the country’s Kurds to break free from central rule. Both Ankara and Tehran fear that such a move could spark unrest among their own Kurdish communities.

BANJA LUKA (AFP) - A “huge” amount of illegal weapons and explosives have been recovered in central Bosnia, the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) said yesterday. “A huge amount of munitions, including almost 100,000 small arms rounds, 190 kilograms (420 pounds) of explosives, 1,151 hand grenades and 280 small arms” have been collected since the beginning of July, SFOR spokesman Steve Forge said.

Bosnian-Serb police will provide security for up to 20,000 Muslims expected to attend Sunday’s memorial services for the ninth anniversary of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, a spokesman said yesterday. Police including special units were on standby and would secure Serb-run Srebrenica as well as all roads leading to the town in the Bosnian-Serb entity, police spokesman Dragomir Peric told AFP. He refused to disclose the number of police involved in the security operation. (AFP)

Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said yesterday that he would not step down as chairman of the governing party, but would instead make changes in the government and the party after it fared poorly in local elections. For two days there has been speculation that Nastase was planning to quit as head of the leftist Social Democratic Party amid tensions with President Ion Iliescu, who was apparently angered by the party’s poor showing in recent elections. After meeting Iliescu early yesterday, Nastase said he would not resign “because we need radical changes in the party, and I am convinced that I can accomplish this objective.” (AP)

A Turkish appeals court said yesterday that it would announce next week whether to order a retrial for four former Kurdish lawmakers or uphold their convictions on charges of links to outlawed Kurdish rebels. Leyla Zana and three other former Kurdish lawmakers did not attend yesterday’s hearing at the appeals court. They were released from prison last month, amid EU pressure on the country to grant more rights to Kurds and improve its human rights record. (AP)