(BELGRADE) - Belgrade welcomed the European Union's decision Thursday to resume talks with Serbia on closer ties next week as "extremely positive" for the Balkan country.

"This is good news which brings more stability and significantly strengthens partner relationships between Serbia and the EU," Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told state-run Tanjug news agency.

Earlier, EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said Brussels would resume the talks thanks to Serbia's improved cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Brussels had frozen the negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in May last year due a lack of progress by Belgrade in the hunt for ICTY fugitives like genocide suspect Ratko Mladic.

Describing the news as an "extremely positive development," Kostunica said his government was "fully determined to fulfil all its international obligations and to finalise cooperation with the ICTY as soon as possible, in the interest of Serbia."

Serbian President Boris Tadic also welcomed the EU decision, saying that his country's new government "must immediately get down to work in order to make up for what has been lost."

"At the same time, we have to see through to the end cooperation with The Hague tribunal because it is all part of the political process," Tadic told Tanjug.

That full cooperation centres around chief Mladic, although the EU has not insisted that the former Bosnian Serb army chief be brought to The Hague before the SAA talks can be resumed.

Mladic, 64, is widely believed to be hiding in Serbia, where many still consider him a hero.

Last week former Bosnian Serb general Zdravko Tolimir, who is facing genocide charges, was transferred to UN court in The Hague after being arrested in eastern Bosnia having crossed the border from Serbia.

Serbia's B92 radio reported that the EU decision came only an hour after chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, currently visiting Belgrade, had informed top EU officials of Serbia's improved cooperation with the tribunal.

Del Ponte "hopes to achieve all the results of the cooperation, including having all the remaining fugitives in custody," her spokeswoman Olga Kavran told AFP.

"She hopes the trend will continue -- she hopes to have Mladic even before she leaves," Kavran said.

Along with his wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, Mladic is top of the wanted list on charges of ordering the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at the wartime Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.

But nearly 12 years after the ICTY indicted them on genocide charges, the pair remain at large. The Srebrenica massacre is considered the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

Text and Picture Copyright 2007 AFP. All other Copyright 2007 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.