BELGRADE, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Serbia said on Thursday it was
looking into ways to improve performance at a key U.S.
Steel-owned steel mill, saying it hoped to avert the potential
closure of a major exporter and employer for the Balkan country.

“We hope there will be no closure, after all we are talking
about 5,500 employees,” Serbian Economy Minister Nebojsa Ciric
told reporters after a business forum in Belgrade.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian President Boris Tadic urged an end to a tense stand-off between Serbs and NATO troops in Kosovo but was rebuffed by hardline Kosovo Serb leaders after five hours of talks late on Sunday.

Tadic is under pressure from the European Union to resolve a three-month-long stalemate between NATO peacekeepers and Serbs manning barricades in the north of Serbia’s former province.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian authorities may ban a gay rights parade in Belgrade on Sunday and all other public gatherings this weekend because they fear a repeat of the violence at last year’s event.

Gay and human rights activists plan to gather in a park and march past government buildings. Ultranationalist groups have said they will stage a counter-rally.

BELGRADE/MITROVICA (Reuters) – NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo (KFOR) reinforced troops at a border crossing in the ethnic Serb north on Wednesday, a day after more than a dozen people were injured in clashes.

About 50 German KFOR troops in armored vehicles and bulldozers were also deployed close to the main bridge in the divided town of Mitrovica.

BELGRADE/MITROVICA (Reuters) – NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo (KFOR) brought in more troops to a contested border crossing in the ethnic Serb north on Wednesday, a day after more than a dozen people were hurt in clashes.

Sixteen Kosovo Serbs and four peacekeepers were injured during the confrontation between KFOR troops and a Serb crowd rallying against the removal of a barrier.

BELGRADE, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Serbia needs to achieve
economic growth of 5 percent annually to boost employment, or
double this year’s expected growth rate, and will rely heavily
on foreign investment to achieve that aim, Prime Minister Mirko
Cvetkovic said on Wednesday.

“This is our strategic goal that needs to be achieved in the
coming years,” Cvetkovic told a business forum in Belgrade on
Wednesday.

BELGRADE, Sept 20 (Reuters) – The Serbian parliament started
a final debate on Tuesday on a public property law considered
crucial for freeing up state-run assets to offer to investors
and for securing European Union candidacy.

Under the law, the government will allow 150 municipalities,
23 cities, the capital Belgrade and the northern Vojvodina
province, which seeks more financial and fiscal autonomy from
Belgrade, to own land, buildings and parts of infrastructure.

PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) – A dispute over documents prevented goods moving freely across the border between Kosovo and Serbia on Monday, the remains of a trade embargo that has led to violence in the past two months between Kosovo’s Albanian majority and Serb minority.

Kosovo, which lifted its ban on trade with Serbia last week under a European Union-mediated deal, accused Belgrade of not implementing its side of the agreement.

PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) – NATO troops in Kosovo are ready to act to quell any violence when Pristina sends its police and customs officers to take over two border posts in the north of the former Serbian province on Friday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

Serbia, which opposes Kosovo’s independence, has warned the takeover of the border crossings could spark violent clashes.

PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) – Kosovo accused former ruler Serbia on Wednesday of plotting to use violence to sabotage its takeover of two contested border crossings, raising the stakes in a simmering row between the two Balkan neighbours.

Kosovo wants to send police and customs officials to the two posts in a largely lawless northern territory on Friday, to stamp its authority on the region still occupied by ethnic Serbs.