SALZBURG (AFP) - The prime minister of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, yesterday reiterated that he wants to hold a referendum on the independence of the Balkan state, against the advice of the European Union. “I think independence is the only good solution for the stability of the mutual relations between Serbia and Montenegro, and for the stability of the region and for its European perspectives,” Djukanovic told AFP. Djukanovic was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Salzburg with the heads of state of Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Romania, the signatories of the Stability Pact for southeastern Europe.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish paramilitary troops yesterday detained 137 would-be immigrants from Asian and African countries as they attempted to sail from the country’s western coast to the nearby Greek island of Samos, a local source said. Acting on a tip-off, troops stopped the immigrants from Azerbaijan, Mauritania, Algeria, Afghanistan and Somalia shortly after they set off from near Didim, on the Aegean coast, aboard a Turkish fishing vessel, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Three Turks suspected of transporting the immigrants to the coast by truck were arrested.

Two teenagers, aged 13 and 16, were seriously hurt yesterday when a freight train slammed into a car in the southern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras, the Anatolia news agency reported. The accident happened as the car was attempting to negotiate a level crossing in the town of Pozanti. Three more people aboard the vehicle, all believed to be from the same family, escaped unhurt. It was not immediately clear who was to blame for the accident. (AFP)

Serbian authorities yesterday returned the remains of 22 ethnic Albanians who were killed during Kosovo’s 1998-99 war and buried in mass graves in Serbia, a UN spokeswoman said. The remains were exhumed from a mass grave near Petrovo Selo, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Belgrade, and were brought to a morgue in Kosovo, said Mechtild Henneke, a spokeswoman for the United Nations in Kosovo. (AP)

Albania will tighten security at Mother Teresa International Airport during next month’s Athens Olympics in neighboring Greece, police said yesterday. Police will deploy two groups of special forces at the airport and have asked the Defense Ministry to guard the perimeter with military commandos, deputy police head Dashnor Kaja said. (AP)

Dutch authorities have rejected a visa request from an ultranationalist politician allied to former President Slobodan Milosevic, news reports said yesterday. Tomislav Nikolic had planned to visit a party leader awaiting trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but was denied a visa, the official Tanjug news agency reported. (AP)