Serb deputy PM quits over failure to capture Mladic

BELGRADE - Serbia's ruling coalition suffered its first serious blow in two years today when a key minister quit over the government's failure to arrest fugitive Ratko Mladic and the resulting rebuff by the EU.

Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus said he was resigning because Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's failure to keep a promise to detain the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander had blocked the way to Europe and betrayed the people.

The move prompted a warning of political crisis and instability -- the very outcome the EU is anxious to avoid.

Labus said his liberal G-17 Plus party would support the minority government for now but decide on May 13 whether to stay in the coalition or pull out, triggering an election. Serbia's ultranationalist Radicals have a clear lead in opinion polls.

"The European Union suspended stabilisation talks because your government, contrary to your promise, did not secure the political conditions for the continuation of talks," Labus said in a letter of resignation addressed to Kostunica.

"As deputy prime minister and head of the negotiating team for EU accession I want no part in such politics," he wrote.

But Kostunica said the EU move was unfair and insisted his government was doing all it could to deliver the genocide suspect.

"In view of the fact that his entire network of helpers has been uncovered, Ratko Mladic is now hiding completely alone. The question now is ... to discover where he is hiding," he said.

The handover of Mladic, 64, is Serbia's most pressing issue, capable of battering Belgrade's credibility as it struggles to hold on to breakaway Kosovo province this year and persuade sister republic Montenegro not to choose independence.

The EU wants Mladic sent to the Hague war crimes tribunal before advancing Serbia's hopes of EU membership. He is charged with genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims and the siege of Sarajevo, which killed over 10,000.

The next round of talks towards an accord, seen as the first stepping stone to joining the EU, was due on May 11.

Jela Bacovic, a negotiator in the stabilisation talks, told Reuters the EU freeze was "a very negative signal for us" but only a slap on the wrist in EU terms.

"The Commission opted for the softest possible measure, by postponing the scheduled round of talks and saying they would immediately resume if the reasons were removed," she said.

Some analysts said the Labus resignation would not have a major impact but others said it heralded major fallout.

"The (EU) suspension comes at the worst political moment for Serbia," said Dragan Cavic, president of Bosnia's Serb Republic, forecasting "radicalisation" of Serbian politics.

"I can see a political crisis in Serbia that can easily result in early elections," Cavic told reporters in Banja Luka. This would create "a serious problem for all of us".

Serbia's minister for co-operation with the Hague, Rasim Ljajic, said Mladic was a determined and resourceful adversary who is "hiding himself very well".

- REUTERS