US hopes for close relations with Serbia

By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press WriterWed Feb 20, 12:56 PM ET

The United States is assuring Serbia it wants to help integrate it into Western institutions and repair relations roiled by the recognition of Kosovo's independence.

But a U.S. official is also cautioning that Serbia's chances of joining the European Union and NATO will hinge on letting go of Kosovo and coming to terms with the policies of its former leader Slobodan Milosevic.

"We think that Serbia, if it can overcome the conflicts of the '90s has a very bright future," Rosemary DiCarlo, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary for European affairs, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "But overcoming the '90s, overcoming the recent past, means apprehension of war criminals, it means recognition that Milosevic lost Kosovo."

The United States and some European countries have demanded that Serbia step up cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The tribunal is still searching for the leaders of the Serb faction during Bosnia's civil war in the early 1990s, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080220/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_kosovo_2