LUXEMBOURG (AFP) - The European Union yesterday agreed to send a team of police and security experts to Kosovo in preparation for a new EU-led security operation. Europe’s foreign ministers decided to set up the team of experts with a view to creating a “possible crisis management operation” in 2007 in Kosovo, which is administered by the United Nations. The operation could comprise 800 men, including police officers and legal experts, an EU source said. It will focus on the fight against organized crime, border controls and the legal system.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Four Turkish soldiers died and two factory workers were injured yesterday when a military transport helicopter crashed into a factory in western Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. The agency quoted a local official as saying the cause of the crash, in the Kocaeli province east of Istanbul, was not known and the helicopter had been on a military exercise in Istanbul. A captain and three lieutenants were killed. The factory workers were taken to hospital, the agency said.

A US congressman yesterday criticized the Turkish government for meeting an exiled Hamas leader, but said the issue should not harm relations with the United States. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Ankara in February, sparking a rift with Israel and drawing criticism from some US officials. Hamas, which won Palestinian legislative elections in January, is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat, met with Gul yesterday and later told reporters, “I expressed respectfully my disagreement with Turkey’s decision to meet with Hamas.” (AP)

The European Union’s environment commissioner expressed satisfaction yesterday with Bulgaria’s progress in environmental protection, and said the few outstanding issues could be solved before the country joins the EU. Stavros Dimas said problems related to waste disposal and water quality needed more attention, but voiced confidence these issues “can and will be addressed in time for accession,” scheduled for January 2007. Bulgaria must also strengthen its capacity to put EU legislation into practice, he told reporters in Sofia. Dimas met with President Georgi Parvanov, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and several ministers, as well as with officials of non-government agencies working in environmental protection. (AP)

Posters of war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic appeared in central Belgrade yesterday as a gesture of support by a fringe ultra-nationalist group that opposes the government’s pledge to hand him over to The Hague. The black-and-white posters show Mladic saluting in uniform, the word “Serb” stamped across his image. (Reuters)