The UN's chief war crimes prosecutor¹ has said Serbia's co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is "progressing".

联合国首席战争罪检察官称，塞尔维亚与国际战犯法庭关于前南斯拉夫战犯的合作“进展顺利”。

Mr Hadzic and Gen Mladic are believed to be hiding somewhere in Serbia

However, in his report to the UN, Serge Brammertz said Serbia must continue searching for two fugitives²（逃亡者）.

They are Bosnian-Serb military leader Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, who is wanted for war crimes in Croatia.

Belgrade hopes the largely positive report will help unblock Serbia's European Union hopes.

These were frozen last year by the Dutch government demanding that the fugitives be caught.

EU bid

The Serbian government has been waiting with bated（减弱，压制） breath for this latest report, eager for the chief prosecutor to make a favourable³ assessment⁴ of Belgrade's performance.

In the end, Mr Brammertz's conclusions were the most positive to date but he noted⁵ that Serbia must pursue its attempts to find the two remaining fugitives, who were indicted⁶（起诉，控告） for war crimes during the 1990s.

In the report, Mr Brammertz said: "Serbia's co-operation with my office has continued to progress.

"Prosecution⁷ requests to access documents and archives are being dealt with more expeditiously⁸ and effectively... Serbia must maintain these efforts with the clear objective of apprehending⁹（理解，逮捕） the fugitives."

Crucially, the magic words "full co-operation" were not uttered（发出，作声）.

That is the phrase that the Netherlands had demanded in order to unfreeze the Interim¹⁰ Trade Agreement - a precursor¹¹ to Serbia's longed-for EU membership negotiations¹².

The Dutch government froze the agreement last year, demanding that Serbia prove its commitment to catching¹³ the fugitives.

However, Belgrade - and many in Brussels - believe that Serbia's significant progress in its co-operation with the tribunal（法院，法庭） may now persuade the Dutch to unblock the agreement as early as next week.

This would pave the way for Serbia's formal application for EU membership by the end of the year.

Responding to the report, the Serbian President Boris Tadic said his government is doing everything in its power to locate the two indictees（被告）.

It will now be up to the EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday to decide whether to reward Serbia for progress made or maintain pressure on Belgrade, by keeping the door to the EU firmly locked.