The European Union has resumed talks on closer ties with Serbia after a year long break.

Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Bozidar Djelic, met with the EU’s Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn in Brussels.

Links between the EU and Belgrade improved after last month’s creation of a new pro-reform coalition government which declared its commitment to full cooperation with the Hague tribunal.

But the EU’s support of independence for Kosovo threatens to be a stumbling block for Belgrade.

The EU backs a plan to give independence to Kosovo under RU supervision, as demanded by its 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority.

However, the EU’s Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, says that issue is completly unrelated to negotiations on Serbia one day joining the bloc.

Brussels announced the resumption of talks after Belgrade arrested of Zdravko Tolimir, a former aide to Bosnian Serb General, Ratko Mladic.

Both men are charged with genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims.

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