(BRUSSELS) - European Union nations failed Monday to convince the Netherlands to drop objections to unfreezing a key aid and trade pact with Serbia, despite an improvement in Belgrade's war crimes cooperation.

EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, were given an update on Serbia's progress by the chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunal, Serge Brammertz, an assessment deemed vital to Belgrade's membership aspirations.

"We have heard the prosecutor Serge Brammertz," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after hosting talks among his EU counterparts. "He cleared up things a lot, saying there had been very clear progress."

"There was a very, very big majority in favour of unfreezing" the interim agreement, part of a Stabilisation and Association Accord, which is seen as the first step toward European Union membership, Kouchner said.

The Netherlands insists that it will only lift its veto once former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, believed to be in hiding in Serbia, is captured and transferred to the court in The Hague.

Mladic -- along with the Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, arrested in Belgrade in July -- was charged over the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

To encourage the pro-European Serb government of President Boris Tadic, the European Commission and most of the 27 EU countries favour the immediate implementation of the interim agreement.

However unanimous agreement is required for even the interim deal and the Dutch, host of The Hague court, are determined to see Mladic delivered first.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday that he hoped the agreement could be unfrozen when the foreign ministers next meet in Luxembourg on October 13.

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