BALKAN, EU LEADERS URGE STOPPING VIOLENCE IN SOUTHERN SERBIA

SKOPJE, Feb 23 (Hina) - Leaders of states participating in the South Eastern Europe Cooperation Process and of the European Union on Friday called for urgent action to stop ethnically-motivated violence in and outside of Kosovo and prevent it from spreading throughout the region. A declaration they adopted at the so-called Balkan Summit in the Macedonian capital of Skopje did not openly accuse ethnic Kosovo Albanians even though most regional leaders hold them responsible. The Balkan Summit leaders also supported a peace plan the Yugoslav and Serb government have drawn to find a peaceful solution for the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedje. The final declaration calls on Yugoslavia to pursue with the democratic reforms taken after the fall of former head of state Slobodan Milosevic and to cooperate with UN's war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The participants in the summit told a joint news conference they were pleased with the agreement reached as to good neighbourly relations, cooperation, and combating terrorism and crime. The EU foreign affairs commissioner Chris Patten said Croatia was on the right path in negotiations on stabilisation and association with the Union, and that Bosnia should take the same route. Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said the region's stability depended on what each country did on its own in reforms. Joint infrastructure projects are adaptable but do not solve problems, he said. Bosnian President Zivko Radisic pointed to the need of holding a trilateral meeting among Croatia, Bosnia, and Yugoslavia to settle mutual issues. (hina) ha