ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey said yesterday Israel had promised swift investigation of a possible violation of Turkish air space that coincided with allegations by Damascus that Israeli war planes had dropped bombs on nearby Syrian territory. Turkey says it believes fuel tanks found late last Thursday near Turkey’s border with Syria had been jettisoned by Israeli aircraft. The same day, Damascus accused Israel of bombing adjacent Syrian territory. “Israel has stated that in the shortest time it will investigate this issue and give us information,” Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told a news conference with his Syrian counterpart, when asked about a violation of Turkish air space last Thursday. “This situation is unacceptable for Turkey,” he said.

ZAGREB (AFP) – Croatia hosted 8.4 million tourists in the first eight months of 2007, putting the Adriatic country on track for another record year, official figures showed yesterday. The figure, which also includes 1 million Croatians, is a 5 percent rise compared to the same period a year ago, the national tourist board said in a statement. During the January-August period, the former Yugoslav republic registered almost 48 million overnight stays, which is also a 5 percent increase from 2006. Most of the holidaymakers were Germans, followed by Slovenians, Croats, Italians, Czechs and Austrians.

Serbia has told the EU it has no plans to send troops into Kosovo and recent comments by a junior minister suggesting otherwise were the result of a misunderstanding, a top EU official said yesterday. Speaking after meeting with Serb Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic in Brussels, European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn also announced they had agreed on the text of a deal that is the first stage toward Serbia’s EU membership. “I have received clarification and I have been reassured that there has been a misunderstanding and Serbia is by no means contemplating any use of force or military action,” Rehn told a news briefing. (Reuters)

A US soldier serving with NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Kosovo (KFOR) has died in a car accident, KFOR said in a statement yesterday. The accident, which did not involve other vehicles, happened close to the provincial capital Pristina late on Sunday. “The soldier was injured in the accident and died two hours later,” the statement said. (AFP)