Chief prosecutor of the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serge Brammertz, is visiting Belgrade for talks with high-ranking Serbian officials in preparation of his regular six-month report on Serbia's co-operation with ICTY, due to be submitted to the UN Security Council at end-November, Serbian broadcaster B92 reported.

On November 18, Brammertz is due to meet the head of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal Rasim Ljajic and war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic. On November 19, he will talk to Serbian prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic and president Boris Tadic, the broadcaster said.

Achieving full co-operation with ICTY is of key importance to Serbia as the European Union has made it an absolute condition for the country's further European integration, defined as a top priority by the Cvetkovic government.

In April, the EU signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Serbia but froze its implementation until Belgrade is considered to be fully co-operating with ICTY. Since then, the Serbian authorities managed to arrest Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, but two more fugitives, head of the Bosnian Serb army and Karadzic's top aide General Ratko Mladic and Croatian Serb Goran Hadzic, remain at large.

Though many Serbian officials voiced their hope Brammertz' report would be a positive one,  Rasim Ljajic was pessimistic. Late on November 16, he told B92 TV he did not expect a positive report as Mladic was still on the loose.

"Brammertz will likely not give a positive appraisal," Ljajic said. "It will not bring anything special because Mladic is not in The Hague," he added and explained Mladic's whereabouts remained unknown to the Serbian authorities.

"Without Mladic in The Hague, Holland will block our association with the EU, and we were told this two days ago by Dutch officials. The international community is no longer interested in our efforts, in our actions, in our exercises, in our activities. They are interested in concrete results, because we have shown our readiness and our political will," Ljajic told B92 TV.