Serbia and Montenegro forge closer links

19/05/09 07:43 CET

world news

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Serbia and Montenegro have agreed to forge closer ties seven months after the two countries fell out over Kosovo. Relations between the two former Yugoslav federation countries cooled after Montenegro recognised Kosovo’s independence.

Serbia’s President Boris Tadic and his Montenegrin counterpart Filip Vujanovic held talks on the first day of a three day visit. It is the first official trip to Belgrade by a Montenegrin leader since Podgorica broke away from a loose federation with Serbia in 2006. Belgrade reluctantly accepted the decision to split but was infuriated and expelled the Montenegrin ambassador. Serbia still considers Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority, to be a southern province. Tadic has hinted that the Montenegrin ambassador will soon be allowed to return to his post.More about: Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia

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Greek coalition closer to agreement on bailout terms

After spending most of the day in talks with prime minister Lucas Papademos, Greece’s coalition party leaders have made some headway. They have agreed to all but one of the points negotiated with the troika of IMF and EU negotiators for the much-needed one hundred and thirty billion euro bailout…