BRUSSELS, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- European Union (EU) foreign ministers have given Belgrade until the end of March to arrest and transfer Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic and other indictees to the UN tribunal in The Hague.

    The foreign ministers said in a council conclusion on Monday that there is a risk of disruption of association talks with Serbia and Montenegro if there is still no "full cooperation" with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

    "Serbia still has some weeks to achieve full cooperation -- roughly at the end of March," EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn told a press conference.

    The next round of Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) talks, initial technical preparations for EU membership negotiations, which was originally scheduled for April 5, could be "put on hold" if  Serbia fails to achieve this goal, said Rehn.

    He said the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, recommended the opening of SAA talks last April on the ground that the country had made significant progress which could have led to full cooperation with the ICTY.

    A year later, he said cooperation has deteriorated. "There has been some very recent recovery, but not much yet," he added.

    He said SAA talks could be concluded by the end of the year if the obstacle -- non-cooperation with the ICTY -- is cleared. "The European Union is firmly committed to a European perspective of Serbia and Montenegro," he told the press conference.

    "Serbia is truly at crossroads today. I believe the leaders and people of the country have the wisdom to take clear and bold decisions so that the European perspective can be materialized to the benefit of the people," he told another press conference after an EU troika meeting with Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic.

    Draskovic said there is no further excuse for his country for not being able to fulfill the obligation of full cooperation with the ICTY.

    "Today we've got a message that we must fulfill that obligation immediately. I hope this time we will do that," he told a joint press conference with Rehn and the foreign ministers of Austria and Finland, the current and next EU presidencies.

    Draskovic blamed "political forces of the former regime" -- in reference to the government of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic -- on his country's failure to capture Mladic.

    "I do not know where Gen. Mladic is. But what I do know is who is protecting ... Gen. Mladic and other fugitives -- the political forces of the former regime."

    Mladic has been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide and other crimes against humanity.

    He is suspected of a major role in the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica during the 1992-95 Bosnia war.

    The EU is holding talks with both the state union of Serbia and Montenegro and separately with the two republics. It is generally believed that SAA talks with Montenegro would not be significantly affected as the twin-track scheme is in place.

    Montenegro is seeking independence, but the political forces in the republic have yet to agree on terms of a referendum. Enditem