WASHINGTON, July 20 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed Serbian President Boris Tadic during talks on Tuesday to spare no effort to bring top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic to book.
Powell told reporters after the meeting that he indicated to Tadic that "we have to try to do everything we could collectively to bring him to justice.
Mladic has been on the run since 1996 and is wanted primarily for his alleged role in the Bosnian Serbs' brutal "ethnic cleansing" campaign, notably the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995.
He is among those still subject to the rule of law and justice before the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in the Hague following the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s.
UN prosecutors have repeatedly claimed to possess evidence of Mladic's presence in Serbia, alleging that he is being protected by elements of the Serbian military. Belgrade officially denies any knowledge of his whereabouts.
Tadic acknowledged that his discussion with Powell included Serbia's "cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.
"This is very important for our future, also, and political stability in Serbia," he said, without elaborating.
NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer had warned Monday that Belgrade must cooperate with the United Nations at The Hague if it wanted to satisfy the alliance's membership requirements.
Belgrade is hoping to join NATO's Partnership for Peace programme, a key step toward membership, but has been blocked due to its failure to arrest suspects wanted for war crimes committed in the Balkan conflicts.
Powell said he told Tadic that the United States wanted to work with Serbia as it pursued its goals toward membership in NATO and the European Union.
"I committed to the president that we would do everything we could to help him as he moved forward," Powell said.
Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic had denied any knowledge of negotiations which are reportedly under way between Belgrade and Mladic.
"Unofficially, I don't want to comment. I haven't said that I know nothing at all, obviously I know something, but nothing about that," the foreign minister was quoted as saying Tuesday by a local radio station.
Defence Minister Prvoslav Davinic was equally evasive when asked about a report in this week's Time magazine that Belgrade had offered Mladic financial aid in exchange for his surrender to the UN war crimes court at The Hague.
"I don't know because I'm not part of the authorities who are negotiating, if they are negotiating," he said.
Davinic had said on the weekend that it was possible that Mladic, the Serb military commander during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, might turn himself in.
Time quoted an unnamed "senior government official" as saying negotiations were underway and results were expected in a matter of weeks.
It said Belgrade had offered to fund Mladic's defence and support his family if he surrendered to face charges including genocide.