SARAJEVO (AP) - Failure to stick to an agreement to reform Bosnia-Herzegovina's police will delay its bid to join the European Union, the EU said yesterday. «Lack of progress on police restructuring in accordance with the October 2005 agreement will inevitably lead to delays in concluding Stabilization and Association Agreement negotiations,» said a letter from EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Last month, Bosnia's Serbs called for new negotiations on police reform, hinting they will not adhere to what they agreed to in October. «The EU's position on police restructuring remains unchanged,» said Solana's letter, distributed through the office of Bosnia's EU representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling.

BELGRADE (AP) - The premiers of Croatia and Serbia declared yesterday that their countries' membership in the EU was important for political regional stability, and reaffirmed pledges to repair damaged relations between the Balkan ex-foes. The comments came during a visit to Serbia by Croatia's Ivo Sanader. «I see both Croatia and Serbia in a united Europe as safeguards for political stability in this region,» Sanader said after talks in Belgrade with Serbian President Vojislav Kostunica, who stressed it was of «great interest» that both countries join the EU.

Romania's state prosecutor Ilie Botos resigned yesterday, a statement by the Romanian presidency said, without giving any details as to the reason for his departure. According to the Romanian Mediafax agency, Botos resigned following the disappearance of a Syrian businessman, Omar Hayssam, who Romanian authorities had accused of terrorism and who was on conditional bail on medical grounds. Late Thursday, the head of the security service Radu Timofte and the chief of Romanian intelligence Gheorghe Fulga also resigned, saying they had «failed in their mission» to stop Hayssam. (AFP)

A would-be bank robber armed with an assault rifle was detained in southern Turkey yesterday after the chador he had put on to disguise himself as a woman came a bit too short to conceal his sneakers, the Anatolia news agency reported. A security guard became suspicious when he noticed that the «woman,» accompanied by another person and idling outside a bank in the city of Adana, was wearing sneakers, an unusual match with the religious attire. The guard called the police, who found that the man was hiding under the chador an AK-47 assault rifle with 30 bullets.(AFP)