BRUSSELS (AP) - The UN mediator for Kosovo said yesterday that he did not expect any breakthroughs at next week's unprecedented talks between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo on the future status of the disputed territory. «It is the first occasion where high-level politicians will present their views,» UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari said after meeting with EU foreign ministers. Ahtisaari said he did not expect the talks to generate any concrete results, adding that would likely have to wait until after the next UN General Assembly session in September. «The EU intends to become the driving force within the future international presence» after the phasing out of direct UN rule, said a statement released by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and Olli Rehn, its commissioner for enlargement.

TIRANA (AFP) - Albania's former deputy prime minister Gramoz Pashko was among at least six people missing yesterday after a helicopter crashed into the Adriatic Sea off southern Italy, the Albanian army chief said. General Pellum Qazimi told AFP the helicopter went down late Sunday off the coast near the southern Italian city of Bari and a search was under way. «The accident happened at 10.05 p.m. on Sunday when the military helicopter transporting former deputy prime minister Gramoz Pashko to an Italian hospital crashed into the Adriatic Sea,» he said. «Albanian and Italian police and army forces are currently making a search.»

Romania's main governing Liberal Party launched a campaign yesterday to collect signatures from citizens to withdraw the country's 890 troops from Iraq. Liberal Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu several weeks ago had proposed bringing the troops home at the end of 2006, but President Traian Basescu and the country's top security body objected. «The purpose of the (signature collection) campaign is to make Parliament vote for the withdrawal,» Liberal Party spokesman Varujan Vosganian told The Associated Press. (AP)

Bosnia's state court added war crimes to the charges against a former Bosnian-Serb minister on trial for allegedly embezzling millions and helping war crimes fugitives, the court said yesterday. Momcilo Mandic was justice minister in the wartime government of the most wanted war crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic. As justice minister, Mandic was responsible for correctional facilities in the territory of Bosnia controlled by the Serbs. Some of the facilities had «all the elements of a camp where many non-Serb civilians were illegally imprisoned,» a statement from the court said in announcing the latest charge. (AP)